Final CFP & Conference Predictions + Portal Chaos & Games Of The Year

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Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole filled with images of alarmingly graphic sores in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that. Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care, fast. Health care just got less painful. I need to get across town, quickly. Maybe I should just take a car. What is a ride gonna cost me? And that ride might be more expensive than a full grocery run. Oh, wait. Let me check Lyft, too, real quick before I book. Less less than I thought. I guess those savings can help me splurge a bit. So when you need to get somewhere and don't want to break the bank, taking a few seconds to check Lyft when you book your next ride could save you money. Save the money. Check Lyft. Jesse, you've always known this about me. I like to consider myself a student of history. We're all part of history, whether you realize it or not. It's fascinating when you learn about famous figures like George Washington and how I know everything feels divided these days, but once upon a time, an entire nation united, and they united around that guy being the first president of the United States. And I think that's a great way to put it. I think that's a great way to put it. Now, you may ask yourself on this Tuesday, August 25th, the year of our Lord, 2026, high atop a focused downtown Nashville, Tennessee, Josh, what's this got to do with college football? Well, I didn't think it was possible. I didn't really think that one man could come along and unite the entire public, and for that matter, unite major college conferences all at the same time. And God gave us Lane Kiffin. And Lane Kiffin has united at least this country of college football together because everybody is in agreement all of a sudden, as of the past 12 hours, that no, Lane and friends, you can't do that. You can't add pro players to your rosters. Again, a real headline that I'm not going to lead the show with because we have actual football that we can talk about. So I'm going to shove all the transfer portal foolishness and nonsense a little bit later in the show. It's college football playoff prediction 2.0 night. There used to just be one of them, but then we figured, why do one when I could just put one out in early August and then change my mind? And yes, friends, I have changed my mind. I've changed my mind on some conferences. I've changed my mind on maybe even up to and including my national champ. So we'll talk about that. I've got the 10 biggest games that I would take you to this year if it were just up to me, and it is because there's no one out here to my left or right. It's a really, really big day in college football because as I mentioned to start the show, I will get to what the Big Ten did. I will get to what the SEC did. I will get to what Lane Kiffin said earlier today. I will get to the threat of further lawsuits and why I really couldn't care less about it. I'll get to all that. Plus, according to you, the worst possible takes you could have for this upcoming college football season. It is a jam-packed show. They're watching us in Little Rock, Arkansas. You, Minnesota, San Diego, California, Columbia, Tennessee. Firstly, thank you everybody for watching and tuning in. You've made us the highest traffic college football show, at least in this galaxy. And I ask you to do one more thing, and that is subscribe to the channel for the two or three of you who haven't already, judging by our numbers lately. It's free for you. It doesn't sign you up for anything, but it does help us out a lot. And thank you in advance. Okay. We're talking to you, Minnesota, San Diego, California, Columbia, Tennessee. We're talking to you, Minnesota, San Diego, California, Tennessee. It's free for you. I want to nail these down because I'm really interested more so to get to the comments after we post this video later and we cut it from the live show and we put it up individually what the comment section says about what your 10 games would be. That's what I want to see. Okay. So starting at number 10, I'd want to be in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, third Saturday in October for Alabama at Tennessee. I have a sneaking suspicion Tennessee is going to be pretty good this year. And the last two times these teams played in this building, I was there. And the last two times these teams played in this building, there was a field storming. And the last two times these teams played in this building, it was like a postcard for everything college football can offer that no other sport on this planet can offer. So maybe third time continues to be a charm there. It's a fascinating rivalry for the older heads in the SEC. They would call it the biggest rivalry in the conference. The younger crowd lost touch because Bama ran off 15 in a row against Tennessee, but now Tennessee's one of the last two at home. I don't need to sell you guys on the third Saturday in October, but remember, I'm taking someone who doesn't know the sport all that well. Well, get ready to speak Rocky Top because I'm taking you to Neyland Stadium week seven. Earlier in the year, my number nine game, I had to figure out a way to get to Death Valley here. And I'm going to take the opportunity to go down there when A&M goes to LSU. This is in week four. So already by this point, Clemson at LSU has happened. LSU at Ole Miss has happened. But A&M, Jesse, correct me if I'm wrong, A&M hasn't even left home yet. Correct. They play Missouri State, Arizona State, Kentucky. So this is the first trip on the road. Second conference game for A&M. I strongly suspect they're 3-0 at this point. And who in the world knows what LSU is? They're either a top five-ish team or they're in wounded animal mode already. Either way, I get to take this person who has never experienced college football and I get to just show them Lane Kiffin's LSU in year one, Death Valley, probably a mid-afternoon or night kickoff. It's not going to be the early kickoff because that day, Texas, Tennessee has the early kickoff. So at some point, they're going to see Death Valley under the lights. So I'm taking them to LSU in week four. Week 10, what a game in the horseshoe. Week 10 is when Oregon goes to Ohio State, a regular season matchup. We were out there in Eugene two years ago when this happened. The color contrast, the game on the field itself, Oregon winning it at the end, one of the games of the year. Could very well be that again this year. I don't know if it's going to get big nooned, which is a verb now. I don't know if that's going to happen. It probably does happen. But Ohio State folks have understood to just condition themselves to be up by the time high noon hits. So this is Dan Lanning, and this is Ryan Day. But this is a little bit later in the year. So Oregon's already played at USC. And they go to Ohio State, and they begin that last portion of their schedule there. It's going to be tough. But I get Dante Moore and Julian saying. And then on the flip side, Ohio State's got the toughest schedule in the league. So what I'm trying to say is maybe neither of them are undefeated by this point. And even if they are, I'm either getting a top three matchup, or I'm getting at least one, if not both of them in must-win mode. Awesome environment. Number seven, it's become my favorite rivalry game in college football. The Red River Shootout. Known by no other name on this program. This is OU Texas, or Texas OU, depending on your flavor. This is week six. The only fault I find, and it's a small fault, is that the powers that be have decided this should be a 3.30 Eastern, 2.30 Central kickoff, instead of the 11 a.m. kickoff that I always loved with this game. But nevertheless, okay, beggars cannot be choosers here. I'm taking my friend who has never experienced college football to the Texas State Fair. Hopefully I can get him a field pass so that we can pull off the trick that we discovered a few years ago, which is if you just walk up the ramp there at the Cotton Bowl and go out to the fair at halftime while the game's going on, it's not really crowded. And you could win some prizes, you could down some funnel cake, walk right back down there, third quarter starts, you know the story there. It's an incredible environment. It's a very blue collar, sleeves rolled up environment, sometimes just because it's hot, but mostly because it's not a lot of suites. I do know that there's some renovations that have happened there, but the bottom line is ancient civilizations built this building sometime long before we were here and it just sit it still sits there in Dallas and we play a big football game in it every year it's I don't need to say a whole lot more about it it's one of my favorite college football games I think it's become my favorite rivalry game in the sport next up Jesse this got confirmed today right the the scheduling deal with Penn State got confirmed today finally okay so USC at Penn State week six noon kickoff no 3 30 kickoff no it's a whiteout which has been unofficial for months and I have no idea what the delay was but now it's official USC and Lincoln Riley get to roll into State College Pennsylvania and experience the whiteout in all its splendor this will be Matt Campbell's first whiteout I mean whomst amongst us didn't see Rocco Beckham starting for Penn State and a whiteout against USC coming a few years ago of course we all saw that I have to take them to a Penn State whiteout game by them I mean the person who is in tow tagging along with me here so this is early enough in the year where look Penn State I'm not going to say they haven't played anybody they've played Wisconsin they've gone to Northwestern but they should be undefeated should be but USC USC is a different story they've already played Oregon and they've already played Washington this is their second trip to the east coast but the first one was against Rutgers point being both teams are still very much in play for everything theoretically and this is going to be a really charged environment also week six what is that Jesse that's uh 10 10 so that's early October you ever experienced early October in rural Pennsylvania leaves are changing temperatures are falling dewpoint has plummeted it's going to be an incredible environment number four we're going to be playing Oregon and we're going to be playing the game of the year Ohio State at Texas I have no problem if you think this is the game of the year I will tell you the reasons why I have the other games ahead of this one ahead of this one you can't go wrong with any of these Ohio State at Texas is week two that's a primetime kickoff on ABC it's an early season not a conference game immense credit to both teams for scheduling this game you know this is the culmination of the build-up between Arch Manning and Rowling and now Arch Manning is a multi-year starter and this was the spot up in Columbus last year where they couldn't do anything now it's Julian Sayan's turn in year two to go down to Austin both of these teams think they can win defensive slug fests if they need to you'll have immense amounts of NFL talent on the field and it is I mean it's two top five teams in primetime so I don't know what more I need to say about that one week four or week six number four this one's been a classic the last two times they played it in the regular season Georgia at Alabama is in week six week six is in an insanely loaded day in college football but this one the last two times they played both went the way of Alabama both down to the wire the Ryan Williams game was two years ago last year I think I don't know if Bama even failed to convert a third down it was the most insane performance ever I think this has been the most important rivalry in the SEC even though it's not a traditional rivalry it's always an insanely charged atmosphere these states border each other Chattahoochee River between them I grew up on the Chattahoochee River right there in Columbus Georgia so this one once both of these teams became really really good in my adolescent years it was a huge deal not to mention Auburn was really good too so it was a perfect time to live in Columbus Georgia that doesn't concern any of you but I think it's a really good time to live in Columbus Georgia but this does concern you this is Kirby Smart who is 0-2 against DeBoer in regular season games but then smoked him in the SEC title game last year and that's what's freshest in everyone's mind and this is also Keelan Russell several games in Keelan Russell has already played at Kentucky Florida State South Carolina at Mississippi State by this point and they'll be favored in all those games this is the one people will circle and for Georgia and Kirby they've all already been on the road to Arkansas by this point but this is the one they've played OU at home they've played Vandy at home that's the one people circle unbelievably charged environments the last two times those have been probably the two best environments in the SEC that we've seen the last two years number three we're going back to week seven the biggest game in the history of Indiana Hoosiers football by a wide margin will take place time to be determined when Ohio State comes to town and if you're familiar with Indiana's schedule I'm not saying it's a slam dunk they're undefeated by this point but man they're probably undefeated by this point their toughest game is at Nebraska and with all due respect to Will Compton Indiana's going to be undefeated when they play Ohio State October 17th I don't know if Ohio State's going to be undefeated they've already played at Texas they've already had Illinois come to town went to Iowa and they go at Indiana I don't even really know what to expect so they've long since sold out season tickets and they've sold out their their allotment for this game and every other game but I mean can can anyone recall your classic big game environments at Indiana this is not well it's a knock on Indiana's history because they've sucked but now they're great so now you kind of get to write history in real time like you get to define what it means to come in that place and play a big marquee game because it just so turns out that all of their big games have felt like they've been on the road aside from that Illinois splattering last year most of the big games have been on the road but this year I mean they get Ohio State at home they get USC at home so that's going to be an incredible environment I want to take someone to Indiana for football because that's what we can do in 2026 game number two I I went with a lot of people's number one LSU at Ole Miss week three primetime ABC everybody in town Oxford I have no idea logistically how you guys are going to handle this that's your problem that's not my problem Lane Kiffin and LSU come into town I don't remember a bigger game in Ole Miss history I mean those Alabama games a few years ago Hugh Freeze still the head coach there I would say this is bigger than that especially because you don't even need to know anything about football to know why this is a big game now the football piece is both of these teams fancy themselves playoff contenders SEC contenders so that's great but man if if you just have a general working knowledge of this sport and what happened last December that's all you need that that's what the marquee says here the number one game in the country that I'd want to take anyone to this year though is Miami at Notre Dame it's week 10 it's a primetime kickoff in South Bend on NBC I don't know for what I love about this sport how you could get better than this you've got last year's national championship runner-up versus the year before's national championship runner-up you've got a team that went down to Miami last year and lost close and then was still ranked ahead of Miami when the first playoff rankings came out but then Miami ended up all the way up and then they overtook Notre Dame and that's no one's fault but the committee's and they're going to play in the regular season again and this is the return trip and it's not early in the year and I love early in I love early season games like give me more of them but there's something about this game happening in week 10 that does something for me there's something about knowing that we're probably looking at temperatures oh I would guess in the 40s at kickoff here but I don't think we're going to be able to do that because we're going to be that does something and I'm not really scared about that with Miami anymore because when they did what they did at Virginia Tech and Pitt to end last year or two seasons ago in the cold weather I don't worry about them so much in cold weather anymore although I will say if you want to talk about clash of cultures like I know the whole Catholics versus convicts thing is a generation ago I have walked the campus at both of these places many times the the campus and the grounds there at Notre Dame I revere those as much as anybody possibly could but even if you don't know anything about football and I just walked you around man you would see this golden dome there inexplicably there's Jesus throwing up the touchdown sign what's that all about like you would look around and you would see that then I take you down to Miami do you people understand that they have to send grad assistants out on the practice field to chase iguanas away sometimes before Miami practices it's like they they exist on different planets it's a true story by the way it's happened multiple times when I've been down there like that's how you cut your teeth at Miami you cut your teeth by chasing iguanas off the practice field so that they can get out there for stretch and strive and they're gonna play each other in week 10 we are such a blessed people so that's where I'd take you if I'm lining up 10 games there are like 10 other runners up I mean Oklahoma at Georgia is not on that list and I would gladly take you to Oklahoma Georgia I'd gladly take you to Oregon USC I would gladly take you to Indiana Washington most underrated environment I think right up there with like South Carolina Williams-Brice Stadium is a Husky Stadium in Seattle. Love it. Love it. On the short list for me taking you anywhere that you haven't been before in college football. Huge news, paper popping news on the show tonight. You may or may not recall about a month ago or so, I told you so many of you had hit me up claiming that you wanted to help design t-shirts for us, that I had cold shouldered, that I was done cold shouldering you. So we hit up Alex and we started a design contest and we let it cook for a month. I admittedly did not have high expectations and that's my fault for doubting you. I should have raised the bar a lot higher in my mind because we have narrowed this down to five finalists and I'm showing them on the screen right now. And that shirt right there, my other girlfriend as a model is so smart. You have to know our show to know what that means, but that's okay because anyone watching our show, obviously knows it. The kids, coaches, and officials being wrong, but me never being wrong. This is really inside baseball stuff for our show. And you guys came through. Oh, brings a tear to the eye seeing some of these designs. Knowing full well, Jesse never would have come up with this. Jesse loves to take credit for the best designs in the store and he never would have come up with this, nor would he have come up with Don't Tread on Saturday. So when it comes to great designs in this store, it's me and it's, you guys almost exclusively shouldering the load. Anyway, I'm not picking the winners. To me, these are all winners. You are going to pick the winners because as of about midnight tonight, all five of those shirts will actually be available in the store. All the winners have been contacted already. At least the finalist. I'm going to leave that for two weeks and for two weeks, those shirts will be available. By the way, that means they'll probably be collector's items one day. The top three, are going to take home a whole lot of my money. So you have two weeks. Get your girlfriends and your aunts and your uncles and anybody to purchase away. I will probably buy at least two of those myself because I'm a massive fan of what you guys did. Thank you so much. PaintStateMaterial.com. The Don't Tread on Saturday stuff is flying even above and beyond what I expected. So it's been a, it's been a great, it's been a great month in the store and it just got better. That's 5% cash back at different places each quarter, like grocery stores, on gas and at restaurants. It pays to discover. Terms apply. ChatGPT can do more than answer questions. It can help you get real work done. ChatGPT work built for bigger projects with multiple steps. You bring the goal along with the information it needs like briefs, notes, files, feedback, calendars, data sets, or project plans. Then ChatGPT can help turn all of that into something useful. An analysis, a tracker, a deck outline, a prototype, or a workflow you can keep shaping. It can also use approved apps, connected tools, files, and browser contexts to help move the work forward. And you stay in control. You give direction, review drafts, approve actions, redirect the work, and choose the final output. So you spend less time sorting through busy work and more time making progress on the work that matters. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode. Available on Plus and Pro plans. Hey, this is Kevin. This is Joe. And this is Nick from Hey Jonas. You know, I recently learned that every 36 minutes, another child in the U.S. is diagnosed with cancer. Think about that for a second. Some of the bravest warriors you'll ever meet aren't professional athletes or superheroes. They're kids in this fight. And every day, these young warriors face challenges most adults couldn't imagine. Yet they continue to show up with incredible courage, determination, and hope. 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And then as August rolled on and camp reports started coming in and injury concerns cropped up, and I just talked to people and had my feelings change, as they do, I realized earlier this week, I don't think I like my bracket anymore. And I checked the rules, and there's nothing against you changing your mind as long as the games haven't started. So I changed my mind. So we're redoing my conference predictions tonight. We're redoing my playoff bracket tonight. And I challenge any of you, to make me feel bad about this, because I feel great. As great as someone could who had Nebraska making the playoff last year. So with that in mind, let's first go through these conferences. In the ACC, once upon a time, I had Miami over SMU. Guys, I got to tell you something, and I want to whisper this because this could go up in flames early. I have either willingly or through force, been talked into Clemson, being a little bit better, slash a lot better than what most of America expects from them. Dabo Swinney did nothing to me when we went over there this spring. This is not dark magic. This is nothing like that. This is just me thinking that the public has sold way too hard here. And it may just be one of those classic cases of a team achieving more the year after. A lot is expected, because I will tell you this, I really like the dynamic at Clemson right now. The team dynamic. And if I threw them in the Big Ten or the SEC, no, they may not compete. But they're in the ACC. And I don't even care if they go and lose to LSU in week one. In fact, them losing to LSU in week one may make this even better, because then Dabo really gets to play the us against the world, everyone's forgot us mentality. I think Miami and Clemson are going to play twice this year. Once in the regular season, once in the ACC title game. And by the way, speaking of that week one game, look at how hard I'm gripping the pen. That week one game, Clemson and LSU, Jesse, you got a line on that right now? Is it nine or so? Nine and a half? Ten? I think Jesse tapped out after I trashed his designs. Okay, I think it's nine and a half. Anyway, LSU is a healthy favorite. Ten and a half. Because if Clemson wins that game, Miami at Clemson in week five becomes a huge marquee spotlight game out of the blue, and no one expected that. And buddy, the press conference for Dabo after that game, if they were to somehow go down to LSU, some of you think LSU should be favored by three and a half touchdowns. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. That's next week's The SEC. I toiled. I wrestled with this. And then in the end, I said, I'm not changing a thing. I'm keeping Georgia over Texas in the SEC. I do think we're going to have three teams in that league with ten and two records. I think it's going to be Georgia, it's going to be Texas, and it's going to be Alabama. And I think through however the tiebreakers work, I think we're going to see Georgia, Texas in the SEC championship game. And until further notice, Texas is incapable of beating Georgia, and so I will take Georgia over Texas like I did a month ago. Good for me. Consistency, after all. Speaking of consistency in the Big Ten championship game, nothing changes here. Ohio State wins the Big Ten by taking down Indiana. This is a rematch from the regular season game. Version one's in Bloomington. Version two is in Indianapolis. And I don't really have to tell you who's going to win the first game, as long as I tell you who's going to win the second game. But this, I think most people have some version of this. Maybe you've got Oregon in there, maybe not. But I'm keeping that the same. And in the Big 12, this is a big change. Pretty big change. A month ago, I had Brigham Young over Texas Tech. And then I really dug in over the past month, because I knew that's pretty bold. Having anyone other than Texas Tech win that league is pretty bold. But if you were going to have someone, it would be Brigham Young. And I have not stopped liking that league. and Brigham Young. In fact, I feel the exact same about them. as I did a month ago. My opinion of Texas Tech has steadily increased over the past month. I really, really love their defensive personnel. I love the depth there. I love the quality of athlete they have over there. I feel good enough about Will Hammond and what he will eventually become that I am going to shift here and I will take Texas Tech to win the Big 12 over Brigham Young. This is not an undefeated season in my mind for Texas Tech, but it's a season good enough to get them to Arlington and at that point they win the Big 12. Defense just a little bit too much. I mean, they could win a game 13-9 if they need to. So, we got Miami over Clemson in the ACC. Texas Tech wins the Big 12 over Brigham Young. Ohio State over Indiana in the Big 10. Georgia over Texas in the SEC. Here's how I think the 1-12 would stack up accordingly. Notre Dame has gone undefeated in my scenario. Notre Dame is your number one overall seed. Ohio State, the Big 10 champ, is your number two overall seed. Georgia winning the SEC is your number three. And I've got Miami number four. So, my thought there is Miami's got one loss. It's presumably against Notre Dame. It's on the road. Probably a really competitive game and elsewhere they're perfect. And I think that's good enough to keep Miami as the ACC champ at number four, which means your Big 10 runner-up is Indiana. They fall to five. And Oregon's there at six because I think Oregon's right in the mix too. That's probably a one-loss Oregon team at six. Texas is your SEC runner-up all the way down at seven. I'm putting Alabama in the playoff, whereas I did not have them in before. And I've got them at 10-2 in the regular season and the number eight overall seed. I am not relinquishing my belief that Lincoln-Riley can get it done. And it's very controversial. My own staff has abandoned me. We've even got visitors in the building that have abandoned me. And so, my one message to Lincoln-Riley would be good luck and don't embarrass me because I believe in you and I'm putting you as the number nine seed. Pause for effect. The 10 seed is Texas Tech. Miami is a Big 12 champ with one regular season loss. That's where I think the committee slots Texas Tech. Oklahoma is a three-loss SEC team that makes the playoff. And your G5 team slash G6 team is Boise at 12. So, Miami is in the top four as the ACC champ. So, Miami gets a first round bye. Oklahoma is the only three-loss team that I have in the playoff. That means your Oklahoma team is a three-loss SEC team that makes the playoff. And your G5 team is Boise at 12. Your Ole Misses, your A&Ms, your LSUs, they're on the outside looking in. And I think all of those are nine and three teams on the outside looking in. So, it's kind of like the mess we had last year with the two-loss teams, only it's the three-loss teams here. People are going to rage out of their mind, by the way, if that's the picture. Knowing full well any one of them is a three-touchdown favorite against Boise, people are going to rage out. But that's not the scenario that should make you mad. I'll give you a scenario. I'll give you a scenario that could make you mad. To quote Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 17, you want shocking? I'll give you shocking in a little while. But first, I've got to tell you who's going to win the national championship. So, give me the bracket and we'll go through this, hopefully in the order we rehearsed. Oh, there it is on the screen here. Okay. So, as you guys know, we are in a partnership with ESPN. Never been a sports or rigged kind of guy because that's insane. However, if you were to rig the playoff, you wouldn't make it look much different than this right here because this is high-level matchups all across the board. USC playing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in round one. We've got Boise at Indiana. That's your 5-12. So, you're always going to have a G5 team there, a G6 team there. But that's not a terrible matchup. But I got Texas Tech in Austin, and I'm going to round one playing Texas. I've got Oklahoma traveling up to Eugene. How many people in the state of Oklahoma have visited Oregon voluntarily? I'm in both of these states regularly, one for football, the other for football and storm chasing. And this is what's beautiful about this sport, the culture clash, the oil and water moments in fandom. I got it in droves here in round one. So, I'm in order. Alabama to defeat Lincoln Riley and USC. This is presumably what the internet tells me Lincoln was trying to avoid, playing on the road in the SEC. That's why they tell me he didn't go to LSU. Now, of course, we don't believe that. But be that as it may, that's what the streets will say. What about Boise at Indiana? I should play the Jeopardy music before I tell you that Indiana body bags Boise. And this game and all of the other games, I'm going to play the Jeopardy Texas, man. Memory spans are that of a fruit fly these days. So people have already stopped talking about and largely forgotten this little dust up between Joey McGuire and Steve Sarkeesian back in the spring. But I remember, and I think everyone will remember when we have a week or so to build up to this game, Texas Tech at Texas. I got to go Texas. Otherwise, look, that's an upset that my Texas friends may never recover. I'm going to go Texas. I'm going to go from emotionally. They'll play a season the next year, but they would be shells of themselves. So I'll take Texas over Texas Tech and I will take Oregon over Oklahoma. However, let's just remember a lot of the vibe around Dan Lanning and Oregon right now is they can't win big games and what cannot does not equal have not, you know, the rule around here. However, if Oklahoma is a playoff team, that means the ground game probably got figured out. So I'm just saying I watched Indiana go up there and deal one to Oregon using that brand of ball last year. Am I saying John Mateer is going to be Fernando Mendoza this year? Maybe. Who knows, Jesse? Time will tell. All I'm saying is very tough matchup there in round one for Oregon. Second round. Here are your four matchups. If you're listening on podcast, you really owe yourself beautiful, beautiful graphic. We have got Alabama against Notre Dame. We've got Miami against Indiana. That's a national title game rematch. We got Texas, Ohio state. That's a regular season rematch. And we've got Georgia versus Oregon. That's Dan Lanning, Kirby smart. You remember that was Lanning's first game against Georgia. Times have changed though. I would even venture to say Oregon would be favored in this game. If they played, we could check with FanDuel Mike on that. Give me Notre Dame over Alabama. Give me Miami over Indiana. They get their get back there in the rematch. They don't quite win a national title by winning that game, but I think Miami is on a mission there. Give me Texas over Ohio state, Texas, even though they don't make the sec championship game. I really think they've got it in them to rev the engine at the right time. And I really think they got it in them to outdo Ohio state there. And give me Oregon over Georgia. We got to get Dan Lanning some big wins here eventually. Now, if that were to happen, that is three consecutive years. Georgia's gone one and done after having a first round by, uh, but we'll deal with that when the time comes, they will say Kirby is washed. If this happens, if you have the audacity to only win the sec and have first round buys in the playoffs, you might as well just quit. You're terrible. Okay. Your final four is not going to be the same. You're going to have to win the SEC. You're going to have Notre Dame versus Miami. Hello. And Texas versus Oregon. I had Notre Dame as my national champion. My opinion has not sullied one bit on Notre Dame. This is a case of my opinion on another team elevating and my opinion on Miami based on what I've picked up over the past month has elevated to the point where I would like to take the Miami hurricanes and put them in the national championship game. And the team they're going to face in the national championship game as fate would have it is the very team who they stole a head coach from. Well, it's not stealing. He voluntarily went, but Mario Cristobal wants the head coach at Oregon. Now the head coach at Miami will face his old team in the national championship game. And before I even tell you who my national champ is, Dan Lanning's won multiple big games here. Okay. No matter who wins, in our final four, it could be Notre Dame. It could be Miami. It could be landing. It could be Sark. Someone's going to have to eat it because these are all coaches that the YouTube comments have reliably informed me cannot win a national championship and someone's got to do it. And especially here with Mario and Dan Lanning, someone's got to do it. Ladies and gentlemen, I am picking the Miami hurricanes to win the national championship over Oregon in Las Vegas, sometime close to Valentine's Day, whenever the national title game is next year. So that is the bracket. But let me tell you a disaster scenario that I was just tossing around earlier today, and even I didn't realize how big a disaster it could be. So your SEC champ and your Big Ten champ, they're going to take up two spots in the playoff, right? Let's say in the Big 12, let's say Texas Tech goes undefeated in the regular season, which doesn't include a game against Brigham Young, and then they play BYU in the conference title game and Texas Tech loses. That puts Brigham Young in. It also probably keeps Texas Tech in. So that's two more playoff spots taken up. Four so far. Let's say Miami loses to Clemson. We get an ACC championship game upset, and the streak continues, and Miami loses to Clemson. We get an ACC championship game upset, and the streak continues, and Miami still hasn't won the ACC. Miami's still going to be in the playoff. Clemson is probably in the playoff at that point. Yes, they're in the playoff, definitely. Two more spots taken up. Notre Dame has a spot. The G6 has a spot. So far, that's two, four, six, eight spots that have been taken up. Now, here's what I need to happen in the Big Ten. Penn State goes 11-1 in the regular season, and because of a cookie-dose-off schedule, they go to the Big Ten championship game. They lose in the Big Ten title game, but they don't drop out of the top 12. That puts another team in the playoff. So SEC Big Ten champ, that's two spots. Brigham Young and Texas Tech, that's two spots. Miami and Clemson, that's two spots. Notre Dame and the G6, that's two spots. Penn State, that's another spot. That's nine spots taken up, and I got three spots left for Oregon, Indiana, USC, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, LSU, A&M, Ole Miss. And even then, I will stand here steadfastly supporting a 12-team playoff over expansion. But that would be a disaster scenario. A disaster for whomst? I don't know. But anyway, Miami's winning the national title this year, so you guys can go ahead and watch that. We move on. I booked Mensah to win the Heisman too, right? I guess it's Mario that better not embarrass me. Really, when it comes down to it, it's Lincoln Riley and Mario Cristobal. My balls are in their court, Jesse. My balls are in their court. This transfer portal thing, this transfer portal thing's been a disaster, but boy, what a Tuesday it has been. So this morning, if you're like me, you woke up and before you even said hello to your friends, you checked your phone and you saw a notification, probably from Pete Nacos or maybe from Ross Dellinger, and it said the Big Ten is deciding that they're not going to let pro-athletes come back and play college sports and college football. And everyone was like, golf clap. And then in this tribalistic world of ours, people started taking shots at the SEC because, well, you guys just put out a strongly worded statement last night. Which was a layer or two of pathetic, because it looked like a statement and nothing else. And then the Big Ten, they definitely won the PR game on this day. They come out and say, we're going to put out more than a statement. We're going to put out a policy. And what their policy was, I'm going to paraphrase a lot of this, it's not all that important, was if you guys take some of these cats who have been cut from the NFL and you play them, we're going to suspend you as a head coach for up to 50% of your season. And we're going to fine your institution millions of dollars. And they had unanimous support. Every president, every AD, they were on board with it in the Big Ten. And then right at close of business, just about an hour or so ago, we get word from the SEC. We're doing the same thing. And then some, because they expanded it to basketball and everything else. And this is Ross Dellinger. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see this. If you're listening on podcast, Ross reported that SEC presidents granted Greg Sankey, quote, pay close attention kids, quote, full and unlimited authority, which includes the ability to suspend a school from competition. In addition to that, league bylaw grants the commissioner powers to deem a player ineligible, suspend coaches, administrators, et cetera. In other words, we're also going to have a policy against that. Now, this was about five or so hours after Lane Kiffin showed up on Pat McAfee's show earlier today. And keep in mind, this is chronologically a little out of order, but I'm doing it this way for a reason. At the point in time Lane went on the show, we had not gotten word from the SEC. All the SEC had done was say, hey, we don't like this. This shouldn't happen. But they hadn't come out with the actual stance and policy and whatnot. So listen closely. This was Lane Kiffin earlier today talking about, all the latest news surrounding them possibly taking guys who had been cut from NFL teams in a training camp and playing for LSU this season. Yeah, there's a lot of parts of it that I don't like within that. I don't think professionals should come back to college sports and college football particularly. But in this instance, this is not professionals that have gone played seasons or just, you know, randomly file an injunction in a state to become eligible. This is part of a big class that was ruled wrong by the NCAA that was supposed to be five for five. So I think you're going to get in a really interesting situation if now, as a conference, you start to say, well, we're not going to follow this court order that's been issued. And we're going to say that these kids that the court says can go anywhere, we're going to say, no, you can't. That's some issues here. Okay. So what Lane is saying there has a germ of validity to it. What he's saying is, first off, he's trying to draw a delineation between guys who have actually played in NFL regular season games versus people who have tried out for teams and been cut and whatnot. And the language that the SEC later released sort of cut through all that because it was, I mean, if you've even, if you've even tried out for teams, if you've even rubbed against, if you've declared for anything, you're ineligible. Okay. So they took care of the draft. They took care of the draft. They is that the NCAA passed this rule, this five for five rule. And that whole thing was meant to say, okay, from this point forward, instead of doing the whole red shirt thing and the injury thing and all that, you're just going to have five years to play. And that's it. However, you 2022 kids, you don't get that. Or also another explanation is some guys declared for the draft, not knowing that rule change was coming. And the argument there is, well, that's not fair because had they known the rule change was coming, maybe they wouldn't have declared for the draft. Is there some germ of validity in there? Of course there is. It doesn't bear the weight of greater scrutiny. The weight of greater scrutiny is forget the details. Okay. Is someone's feelings hurt? Maybe so. Could you argue something's a little unfair? Maybe so, but I'll see you with that. I'll see you with that. These dudes were playing in NFL preseason games. These guys were in NFL preseason camp. They're professional athletes. They're not coming back to play college football. And then that's kind of when most people dust their hands and they absolve themselves. They kind of wash their hands of it all. But this is the second time in six months that we've had this inflection point in college football where a famously, a well-documented divided society has totally united. Brendan on games, 95 plus percent of the public said, yeah, he should never play college ball again. And Texas tech slash Brendan Swordsby tried to fight it. And there was that whole kerfuffle. You know how rarely I use that word, but there was that whole kerfuffle out in Texas and everybody rose up against it. And then just when I thought I couldn't see that again, I got not just laying in LSU, but I've got LSU among other programs looking at what they think is a very legal loophole to add players to their roster. And 95% of the public hated that too. This was even further down the road of that because this even united the conferences. These people have disagreed on everything. And all of a sudden they agree on this. So, hey, you know, golf clap, golf clap, because it's the proper stance to have. I will say this, as I said the other day, a lot of folks, after we did our show the other night, were in my DMs saying, you took it easy on Lane. You took it easy on LSU. I don't care about Lane and LSU was my whole point. I will never count on any competitor in an ultra competitive arena voluntarily abiding by some code that you want them to abide by. Their only code, the only barrier is rules. That's it. Those are the entire reasons rules exist because you can't count on people to just do it the way you want them to as especially if it means foregoing an edge they think they can get. I don't count on the competitors to do that. If you were against steroid use in baseball, you should be for a rule against steroids in baseball, which there was. So then when guys did it, it was a violation of rules and then you get popped. That's how it's supposed to work. The way it's not supposed to work is, huh, let's see, multivitamins are technically legal. I just don't think players should take those. That's not fair. That's a little bit of a health advantage. No, if it's that bad of an advantage, make it illegal. Similarly here, it's just that we've had our shoelaces tied in college athletics because every time you try and enforce a rule or write a new rule, some lawyer comes along and you find out it's illegal. So here's what's happening right now. What's happening right now is, yes, the Big Ten and the SEC came out with these policies and it sounds like the Big 12 will do it. The ACC will do it. And the natural follow-up is this is probably not done. All you'll see is players sue conferences. In all likelihood, that's what you're going to see. I would expect it as early as tomorrow to see players trying to challenge conferences because conferences are acting in blatant violation of court rulings. Now, here's my question. Famously, I am not a lawyer, although Pate State has a heck of a law school, but I'm not a lawyer. Here is where my head is at on this. The enforcement threat from the Big Ten and the SEC, as I read it, is not on players. The enforcement threat was towards the schools themselves. So if Bradley goes and tries out for the Atlanta Falcons and gets cut and then wants to go and play for Auburn, if I'm Greg Sankey, I'm not punishing Bradley. I'm threatening Alex Golish in Auburn. And I'm saying, you do whatever you want to. But if you do play him, I have got, and I want to use the quote again, full and unlimited authority granted in a 16-0 unanimous decision amongst university presidents to act any way that I see fit. And I can suspend you and I can hold your institution financially responsible. And at that point, play him if you want to. But there will be consequences. That's kind of how this reads to me. Full and unlimited authority. Not to tell players they can't play. That's not what was in those graphics today. It was, no, this is to you, the institution. You better not do it or there'll be consequences. So I don't doubt that there'll be lawsuits. Oh, I don't doubt we'll hear a lot more noise about that. But the other question that I'm asking is, I kind of understand when they fought so hard for Brendan Soresby, like, that's your quarterback. I mean, that's a potential game changer. That's a potential season-altering, playoff-altering situation that Texas Tech had on their hands. I don't want to be disrespectful. I'm just rhetorically asking, in light of all this, is any school, LSU or anyone else, are any of them going to look and say, you know, it's worth it. I think we're going to pursue this anyway. I think we're going to go take some guys that were cut from NFL rosters and we're going to bolster ours a little bit. Yep. Yes, this is worth the risk. I don't know. Time will tell. We'll see how that goes. Quick Trip is a longtime partner of our show. That's just a fact. Quick Trip's not going anywhere. In fact, I would argue quite the opposite. It's Quick Trip that will stay in place. You should go to Quick Trip. Now, last week, I put my tank where my mouth was and I let the on the way home from, where had I been? Oh, I was at Alabama Scrimmage. So I'm driving home. There's a Quick Trip. Once you get in Birmingham and you go north on 65, there's a Quick Trip between Birmingham and the Tennessee-Alabama state line. It looked for a second like I was cooked and I was going to run out of gas, but I made it and I filled up and then I go inside and I get my usuals and everyone has their own usuals. What I didn't know, because Jesse had not was that you can currently get a pizza and a Big Q for $4. Or if you've downloaded the app, you can get the same deal for $3. I know some of you are out there saying, I don't need another dollar. I already have a dollar. Okay, we'll go pay $4 for it. I'm just saying I can get it to you for $3 if you download the app. But either way, I wish I had known that. I wish I had known that because I'll eat pizza at two o'clock in the morning. I don't care. Cold brew on tap, Big Q, I've still got the cup, the styrofoam cup in my floorboard to prove that I made this stop. So we appreciate Quick Trip. They've been a friend of ours for a long time. Some of you are newbies around here and you are not familiar with how we committed to Quick Trip, but we quite literally committed to Quick Trip on air. Gas station recruiting wars were one of the seminal moments of our show. Fun times. It pays to Discover. Terms apply. ChatGPT work is built for bigger projects with multiple steps. You bring the goal along with the information it needs, like briefs, notes, files, feedback, calendars, data sets, or project plans. So you spend less time sorting through the work, and more time making progress on the work that matters. Hey, this is Kevin. This is Joe. For the past 28 years, with support from Hyundai, their dealers, and every new Hyundai sold, Hope on Wheels has contributed over $300 million to childhood cancer research, helping save more than 40,000 kids. We need your help. dot com slash Hope on Wheels, or ask about Hope on Wheels at your local Hyundai dealer. Normally, a description or a scouting report that you would save to describe a Montreal Expo's middle reliever or something like that. But Bryce Underwood, yes, of 15 million over three-year fame, Bryce Underwood having a workman-like camp. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world. Not a ton of buzz, but that doesn't mean it's been bad. It could very well mean he's just been getting done what he needs to get done. He's learning a new system. Listen, Michigan, the best receiver in the world. Michigan's got a pretty good receiver room. So they've got the potential to make a few more wow plays on you than you're normally accustomed to with Michigan. Like Michigan hits a tight end 25 yards down the field and you're like, whoa, maybe not so much or maybe more plentifully this year, I should say. But Andrew Marsh at wide receiver, J.J. Buchanan, those are two legit guys. They're not alone in that room, but those are two legit wide receiver one caliber players that maybe we hadn't seen at Michigan for a little while. But they're really a team to watch because as this rounds into form, offensive line's good at Michigan. Running back, extremely solid one-two. You know you'll get solid DB play here. I do want to see what overall level of play they have in the defensive front. That's not me. That's not me doubting. me questioning a little bit. Like John Henry Daly had 11 and a half sacks, I think for Utah last year was injured. Uh, he's rounded into form. Sounds like he'll be good to go and they get Oklahoma in their week too. And that's going to be incredible because you're talking about a complete and total rock fight potentially, but, but just as soon as everyone's sitting here saying bet the under blindly, you got John Mateer going in there and you got Bryce Underwood and Bryce Underwood being doubted because no one believes in giving quarterbacks time to develop anymore. And I'm just saying Michigan right now, 15th best odds to win the national title. This is not me predicting Michigan to win the national title, but I think they're going to be a fairly good team this year. So I want to keep an eye on Michigan and we haven't talked about them enough. Florida, Jesse's Florida. Aaron Philo has been named QB one. That's a couple of days old over under wind total is seven and a half right now. So six, two, two 20, um, you know about Philo. He transferred there with Buster Faulkner. So it's the OC QB combo. It sounds like it should be available at quick trip, but really it's just available in the transfer portal. And so they got that going for them. It feels like knock on all the wood on the set. It feels like the offensive line crisis has been averted. You remember Summerall coming out of spring ball, talked about his offensive line as if they weren't even there. You know, it was just like, it was going to be, I really don't, he, he made it sound like it could be a disaster if they didn't really, really improve. So, uh, there've been a lot of updates. Like he says, you can expect Bryce Lovett at left tackle and the left to right. It feels like they've rounded it into form. Okay. So what we don't question at Florida is that, you know, wide receiver rooms, incredible running back rooms, incredible Vernell Brown, Eric Singleton, Dallas Wilson. Those are probably your one through three, but I'll say it again. Just like I said, when I was down there in the spring, they really, really, really like Micah Mays. Uh, Micah Mays is a transfer from Wake Forest. And that guy is a guy that if he were on other rosters would be headlining a lot of fall camp Intel reports. It just so happens he's in a loaded room. But loaded or not, he'll get some production for them this year. I'm good with their pass rush. I'm good in line at linebacker. I still want to see them against the run. That's where I'm curious because there's a lot of potential there. Um, you got Florida schedule Bradley by chance. So they've got two games that you won't watch. And then they go to Auburn in week three and they got Ole Miss in week four and they got Missouri in week five. And those are three clubs that can run the ball. So I'm really, I'm really, I'm really interested to see what Florida run D looks like this year. Is it a top 20 unit? Is it just a top 50 unit? How does that look this year? That concludes camp Intel. So the other day I put out a call and I wanted to know, we did this last year, Bradley, here's a good end point for you. I asked you guys the other day, what are some popular 2026 college football takes that are just going to whiff? This would be your Penn state wins the big 10 last year. LSU makes the playoff Clemson wins the national title. Those kinds of takes, maybe not that extreme, but we all know they're out there. Things. A lot of people collectively believe that we'll just never pan out. What are those? And we took five submissions. I think you guys did a really good job on this first one. Andrew says that one of the worst takes is going to be that we need a 2014 playoff. That's evergreen. You know, I wholeheartedly agree with you on that. I do think if we get to the end of the road this year and we have a log jam for that final spot in the playoff, and we've got some three loss SEC teams sitting out two or three loss big 10 teams sitting out, you will have expansionists out there take advantage of a bad faith situation to try and weaponize that as evidence that the playoff needs to expand. We're not falling for it. We will not fall for it. We haven't fallen for it. And it's viable teams out is not evidence that the playoff is not big enough. Viable teams, flawed, but viable teams being left out means the playoff is the perfect size. And I guarantee you that that scenario has come at the tail end of an incredible regular season where every game had a pucker meter of 10 out of 10 on it. Next up, Brian says one of the worst takes out there is that Arch Manning, current Heisman Trophy favorite, won't even be a candidate by the end of the season. Well, I'm not going to say that that's, I'm not going to say it would shock me. Arch, for the record at FanDuel, the second favorite behind CJ Carr. I just wonder what this would entail. Is this the kind of situation where Arch doesn't have prolific numbers, but it turns out he didn't need to because they could be a defensive oriented team and Texas still goes 10 and two and wins the SEC or makes the playoff? Or is it, Arch had bad numbers and Texas' season got derailed? Because if it's the latter, Arch not being a Heisman finalist will be the least of our concerns with Texas. If it's the former, and I know it confuses some people, which is which, me included, but if it's the former, maybe they call him a game manager. Maybe we get to that point where Arch Manning is labeled a game manager. But yeah, that would be one that I think would shock a fair amount of people. The next one has to do with me, and I can't help but feel that this is personal. Ryan said that one of the worst takes out there is Notre Dame being the best team if they were in the SEC. They would not survive that schedule. Brian is referencing, well, me, because the other day, who was I on with, Jesse? I think it was Colin. Yeah, I was on Cowherd Show and I said, he was asking me, do you think that Notre Dame will just be a product of their schedule or are they a legit national title contender? So the quickest way that I could summarize my feelings towards Notre Dame is I said, if they played in the SEC this year, I'd pick them to win the SEC. Heads exploded. I want to know this. What is it about the SEC schedule that Notre Dame's personnel wouldn't be able to survive? They're really good along the lines of scrimmage. The program is bedrocked in the very principles that it takes to survive that kind of schedule. So I ask, what magic formula is it? What magic talent acquisition mechanism is it that Georgia possesses or South Carolina possesses or whoever you think is going to compete in the SEC that Notre Dame doesn't have? Is it a top quarterback? All they have is the Heisman Trophy favorite in Notre Dame. So I mean, I know you get 10 better ones in the SEC. What is it? I don't think there is anything magical. In fact, I think Notre Dame would measure up very, very comparably with the SEC. Now, if you want to take shots at their schedule, take shots at their schedule. But as we have discussed many times on this show, there's a difference between a team and the schedule the team plays. The example I always use, which is radical, is if I took the Seattle Seahawks fresh off a Super Bowl and I had them play University of Louisiana Monroe's schedule, you would have no respect for their schedule, nor should you. But they'd still be the Seahawks. Just like Notre Dame this year could play one of the softest schedules in the country. But if they're the best team in the country, they're the best team in the country. If they're a fraud, which is what many of you suspect, and they cakewalk their way through an inferior schedule, but they're not really legit, well, that's why we have a playoff. God invented the playoff to expose frauds. So that'll happen. If you're right and I'm wrong, that'll happen in the playoff. I highly suspect that Notre Dame will be a factor throughout. Next up, feels like another shot at me. John Mateer will be better because he's not injured. That's apparently the bad take this year. They continue. In reality, John Mateer's decision-making was a bigger distraction than his thumb, or a detraction, bigger detraction than his thumb. Well, Stats and Info has put together some helpful guidance for us here. As you all know, I had a John Mateer Heisman ticket last year, so his injury personally affected me more even than it did John Mateer himself. John Mateer's first four games last year. Pay close attention, Esai. His first four games last year. 270 plus every game. Eleven combined touchdowns, three picks. And then he got hurt. One of the bigger tragedies of the modern era. And then he came back, probably before he should have, and he had six straight games under 225 yards. Four touchdowns, four picks. He took 13 sacks in their three losses. So all I'm trying to say is, had he not been hurt, he would have been the best quarterback in the country, and everything bad that happened is not his fault. It was on his offensive line. And we fixed both of those things this year. So I expect big things from John Mateer. The skeptics will tell you that the thumb was a cop-out, and that he's just really a bad decision-maker. And to the skeptics, I say, well, stay tuned, because they play a lot of big games this year, so we'll find out. I believe in John Mateer. Lastly, yeah, I can see a lot of people going with this, this one. Out of Salt Lake City, Utah, the worst college football take is that this will be Lincoln Riley. his breakthrough year, he will be tarmacked. College football is great for many reasons. One of those reasons is the word tarmacked exists as a verb in our sport. So Lincoln Riley has to do it this year. I am a big believer that it is a playoff or bust year for Lincoln Riley. And on a close and personal related note, I have him making the playoff against a tough schedule. So yes, I believe in Lincoln Riley. No, a lot of you don't. Yes, some of you would take great joy in watching him suffer while cashing in an eight figure buyout, but suffer nonetheless. The 1% are suffering too, people. And so I don't think they would do it on the tarmac, but we got a bold prediction later in the show about this very day. I don't think they would do it on the tarmac, and I'll save it for bold predictions. But I just want to know, are you going to apologize if he does make the playoff? Of course you're not, but that's okay. That's okay. If you want to go see USC or any team this year, you can do that. You have to purchase a ticket and I can help you there, courtesy of SeatGeek. So a lot of you are gearing up and some of you are lucky enough to have season tickets. And look, most of us envy you. Get out of the way. You are the envy of most of the college football public. But as for the rest of us, we have to buy tickets and we're going to pay money, but you don't have to pay as much money as the casuals out there. If you purchase your tickets through SeatGeek right there before checkout, it'll say promo code. You click on it. You type P-A-T-E-1-0. That is PATE10. I will get you 10% off your order. All orders up to $200, 10% off. All orders above $200, 10% off. So you see, you're still going to have to pay, but that's what we save our money. That's what our piggy banks are for all year anyway. It's college football. What else are you going to spend your money on? Food, shelter, clothing? Stupid. College football season's here. Pay a little bit less by using promo code PATE10 at SeatGeek. So we had a question earlier today about freshmen. Mikey in Chicago said everyone gets so tied up in Heisman talk. But for me, it's a lot more fun to try and identify freshman impact players. Do you have any names you're looking at? Yes. And it's not like I had to wait for you to ask this question, Mikey, but I appreciate you did because I would like to talk to you about five names. Number one, been on the radar a lot lately, Faison Brandon, quarterback who has won the job outright at Tennessee. This is a really big deal. Tennessee folks are familiar with this stat, but most non-Tennessee fans, you may not know this is the first time they've started a freshman at since 2004. Yeah, 2004. So big deal. And frankly, back in the spring, I probably would have leaned George McIntyre 60-40. So Faison Brandon winning this job is big for many reasons, but chiefly because if you think about the identity that they'll probably have, and that is run first and run often, that's a good O-line. That's a good tailback room. 6'4", 225 with the ability to make some plays with his feet and fall forward. That's a good line. Those aren't the worst tools in the world to have. The one thing about him is he missed most of his senior year in high school because he was hurt. He came back and played in the playoffs, but he hasn't played. He hasn't had a whole lot of game action in quite a while. But if that was a hindrance, Josh Heupel wouldn't have named him the starter. So that's going to be a name. Cody Green at Washington. A lot of people have paid attention to Jackson Cantwell, for example, at is less known. He was the number 36 overall player, number five offensive tackle in the on three rankings of the rival rivals rankings. He's out of modern day, which is for all intents and purposes, a college football program. Modern day could be in the pack 12. Really, if you think about it right now, the only thing they're missing is they don't have state on the end of their name. That's what's keeping modern day from being a pack 12 program. He's 6'6". He's 325. He won the left tackle job almost immediately. And Washington this year, I think they're the ultimate chaos team because they play USC, Penn State, Indiana, and Oregon. Maybe Jed Fish just makes the playoff himself. But if he doesn't, he could wreck someone else's playoff dreams. Either way, Cody Green is the real deal. Three and out type guy. Luke Waffle down the coast at USC, number one overall edge player, number five overall player, 6'5", 270. You got Braylon Shelby and Cameron Crawford on this team, but you're not keeping Luke Waffle off the field. He will factor in and rotate in with those guys early and often. I think you can also keep an eye on Mark Bowman, the tight end there. USC just signed the number one class in the country. It's very well known that they have to have several immediate contributors from that class. That is baked into the belief that people like me have that USC could be a playoff contender this year. But Luke Waffle's the real deal. I'd circle him. I'd go up to Michigan, staying in the Big 10 for a second. Uh, Michigan's identity this year should be probably like a blend of old school Michigan, but also you, I talked about the wide receiver situation a little bit earlier, but Savion Hitter, if you look at the high school footage, these are highlights. I don't call this film. It's highlights. That looks like a Michigan player who is two or three years into the program went and played in high school competition. That's, that's normally what that would look like. So it stands to reason, and it should be as a shock to no one. He comes in and will be contributing as a true freshman there. Uh, their offense is based around the run. His explosiveness is different than, than most any player that you'll see come into the college level, him and Jordan Marshall there. And it, it should bear repeating. Utah had the number two rushing offense in the country last year, and it was just them and a bunch of service academies. So that's how effective Utah was running the ball. And Matt Sieg, before we move off of this topic is a safety at West Virginia was committed to Penn state. I believe at one time, but ended up committing to and signing with West Virginia. He was the number two overall player, number 18 safety, two way player in high school, play quarterback as well as safety and picked West Virginia with an eye on play in both ways. Now, I don't know if that's their immediate plan for him, you know, locked down one job first, but I think in time, especially if West Virginia starts to do something this year, it'll be because they're running the crap out of the ball. And number two, it'll be man, the true freshmen. Is it S I E G? Is it S E I G? How do I pronounce this? Well, it doesn't matter player. That's how you pronounce it. So those are some of the true freshmen. I got my eye on FanDuel has not put a West Virginia rushing futures bet up for me yet, but they do have big 12 championship odds. They do have big 10 championship odds. You can, you can bet UNLV to make or miss the playoff. You can do whatever you want to virtually over there. A lot of markets right now, but for those of you who are betting the futures, go ahead and do it. You might want to screenshot it and share it in the FanDuel discord because we're picking four of them on the Sunday show. And the four of them that we picked are going to take home $25 in bonus bets. I told you my strategy, which is bet $20 on the bet. So it already got paid off. Even if you lose, it already got paid off and you made $5 FanDuel, the exclusive odds provider of the show. We appreciate them so much. Must be 21 plus and present in select States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 plus and present in DC first online real money wager, only $5 first deposit required bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets, which expire seven days after receipt restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com gambling problem, call one 800 gambler or visit us at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Visit fan duel.com slash RG call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit ndgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24 seven support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8 hope and why or text hope and why in New York bowl predictions. We wrap every show this time of year with bowl predictions, not mine, but yours. These are the things that you believe in. And I'm just rating them on a boldness scale. And if it's nine and a half or Boulder and it hits, I send you a chalice of supremacy and we're, we're well-stocked. We got six boxes of them. So let's go first up out of diamond, Ohio, Dan landing in Oregon, go into the Coliseum and beat USC by 28 plus Lincoln. Riley is fired before Halloween. Again, it's me and Lincoln Riley's close personal friends and relatives. And that's about all that believes in Lincoln Riley at this point, but that's okay. So we hit a fan dual mic up the other day. Cause I was curious what this Oregon USC line may be. And it's not available. Although it may be now this was last week, Oregon by six and a half Oregon minus six and a half. That's what the number would roughly be. So you're telling me Oregon wins by four touchdowns and then Lincoln Riley's gone by Halloween. These are heavily correlated because if USC is bad enough to get drugged by four touchdowns, at home, that's probably not the only game they're losing before Halloween, Washington could come in there and beat them. They absolutely could go on the road and lose to Penn State. They could lose at Wisconsin. And then, wouldn't you know it, Ohio State comes in there to deal the death blow on Halloween, if it even takes that long. This is a 9.75 for me. Because if you think about it, what if they lose by 21 to Oregon? All of the other stuff could still be in play. But no, you had to go and pick 28+. And for that reason, I do rate this a 9.75. Next up, this is Matt from Atlanta, Georgia. He said, the top four seeded playoff teams all win their quarterfinal games. Now, this sounds very non-bold. But if you know the history of the college football playoff, it's extremely bold. Because top four seeds in quarterfinal games are 1 and 7 so far. Indiana over Alabama was the only time that the team with the bye, top four seeded team, actually won one of these games. Oregon got blown out by Ohio State. Georgia lost to Notre Dame. Boise lost to Penn State. Seems like forever ago, but it was only two playoffs ago that Arizona State and Boise were in the situation. Anyway, I still make this a 9. I don't think this will be a forever trend. Also, these teams have had two full years now of kind of learning, gathering information, developing a plan for how to handle the off time, the bye week. So I'll make it a 9. But all of these teams are favored in these games. Usually, I think eventually you'll just have a chalky quarterfinal round. Next up, this is bold. Jesse, is this Osiris? Is this how you spell this first name or pronounce it? From Long Island? Holbrook, Long Island? Auburn makes the playoff. That's a 9.75. Congrats. This could be the first chalice we've sent to Long Island. All you need is Alex Golish and Byron Brown to come through for you. That's all you need. 25th best odds to win the title, for those of you keeping track out there. If you sweep the early swing games, Bradley, give me their schedule right quick. So you know they open with Baylor, and then they've got Auburn at home a couple of weeks later. Those are the swing games. If they sweep those and they start 3-0, they've got Vandy coming to town. Probably a letdown spot, but let's say for the sake of argument, they win that game. They start 4-0. Then they go into October, which is essentially a death march for Auburn this year, at Tennessee, at Georgia, LSU, at Ole Miss. And I just flat out don't think they can make it through that with less than two losses. And keep in mind, you've still got to go to Bryant-Denny in late November for the Iron Bowl. And that's if everything goes swimmingly in September. So this is really tough. I make this a 9.75. Although, admittedly, I'd kind of low-key love to see it, because that would be crazy. And lastly, this is a perfect 10. In this year's Red River Shootout, known by no other name on your show, he actually said that. Conrad actually said that. Thank you. In the Red River Shootout this year, Arch Manning will either be picked off or have a fumble forced by both Peyton and Eli Bowen. Okay, I changed the wording here to do you a favor, Conrad. Here is the way it's worded now. In the Red River Shootout, Arch turns it over twice due to Peyton and Eli Bowen. Because what I don't want is one of them to force a fumble, and then someone else picks it up, and you just lose on a technicality. So, this is still a 10. First off, we're predicting multiple turnovers in a game. And we're predicting the exact people who will be forcing the turnovers. And both of them have first names that correlate with Arch's uncles, just a fun side note there. I think I'm the last person in the world to pick up on that. But be that as it may, this is a 10. If this hits, this will be one of the great bold prediction hits in history, and a chalice will have been well earned. Thank you guys so much for watching this show. Please make sure you subscribe to the channel and like the video. Those two things cost you $0. They sign you up for nothing. They just help us. And it's been helping a lot. And we appreciate you. And we thank you. There are rumors. There are rumors of a special guest on the Thursday show. It will not be Brandon Walker, but it will be a longtime friend of the program. And for that, you'll just need to stay tuned. For Director Bradley, Producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. Take care. We'll see you Thursday. Until then, God bless. 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