Pros and Cons of the 24-Team Playoff + Who are the Tier 1 National Championship contenders?

are their 24 teams that can actually win a national championship. The answer's no. Most people will say, "No, you're killing the regular season." I actually see it opposite. Greg Sankey could have stopped this. No, he couldn't. Why? Because the majority of his coaches wanted it. (dramatic music) Hey, welcome into the program. This is Joe Flatjom, Joe Flat. This show is sponsored by Hilton Hilton for the stay. And we thank them for their support as always. Big show for you here today. Obviously the huge news last week that the playoff is gonna expand to 24. That's gonna happen in 2027. All those deals are kinda being finalized as we speak and that's what we're gonna get. So I wanted to walk through that with you here today. And here's the thing. I absolutely understand and know that this is not very popular. You know, most of the sentiment out there, most of you listening to this show, don't agree that expansion is necessary or needed. And I want to first and foremost say, I totally understand that, okay? And there is a part of me that feels the same way. There are arguments on both sides. And so what I wanted to do today is just deliver some pros and cons of this move. And let's talk about it a little bit rather than just throwing out, you know, this is terrible or awful or it's the best thing since sliced bread. I don't think either of those are true. So let's just walk down the road and talk about the pros and cons and maybe I'll say something not that convinces you of anything other than you already think, but at least gives you something from a different perspective that allows you to possibly understand a little bit more. First and foremost, I do, you know, let's get the gorilla out of the room right now. And that is, I work for one of the major TV networks, okay? So that's, there it is. Obviously ESPN and Fox are kind of the two biggest power brokers as far as networks go. In college football, ESPN being the biggest, but I sit here and this is a Fox sports college football product. I'm proud to work for Fox sports. And so this perspective is from that view, to some degree. But I'll first want to discuss why, why this is happening in the first place. 'Cause there's not a lot of discussion. Everyone just wants to throw the definitive. I hate it, I like it, whatever it is. And a lot more I hate it than I like it. But not a lot of why, why are we here? Why are we getting this, this 2014 playoff, even in the face of what I see as kind of rigid, fan sentiment against a 2014 playoff. So let's talk about that for a moment. It boils down to this. Coaches want it. You might hate that, but it's what the coaches want. And as you'll see as I kind of walk through this why, ultimately the commissioners who generate a lot of animus, I would say from fans in particular surrounding this playoff expansion, they can't do this on their own. This is not just Tony Petiti. This is not just ESPN. This is not just Fox. This is not just Greg Sanky or any of the commissioners. This is ultimately the coaches. You can remember the commissioners work for the conference. They work for the presidents and the conference. And guess what, those presidents, their sentiment is going to be largely the sentiment of their head coach and their athletic director. So for bottom lining this thing, why are we expanding to 24? It's because that's what the coaches want. Now, I'm not saying that every single coach wants this. And I'm sure that there are some that are outspoken against it. But as a generalized sentiment, the majority of college football coaches want this expanded playoff, then you have to get into like, why would they want this if the fans don't want this? Well, it really boils down to a couple of different reasons. I think first and foremost is this idea that, and I know this is self preservation in some ways, but coaches are tired of getting fired for not making the college football playoff. They're tired of trying to raise money to have a 30, 35, 40, 45 million dollar roster. And then their fans saying like, well, do we actually, is this going to matter? Are we actually going to have access? Are we going to be in the top 12? Are we going to be in the top 11 with the group of six inclusion? Are we going to be in the playoff? And it's becoming harder and harder to raise those dollars to put together a roster that you feel like can be competitive if those fans don't feel like they have access, okay? So the coaches, they're tired of getting fired for not making the playoffs. They're tired of trying to raise money in the face of this narrow version of success, this narrow version of what it means to actually be a program that has value in college football. That's the driver on their side. And then ultimately, what a lot of people want, and I think you would be included in this, the fan is better non-conference schedules. The commissioners want better non-conference schedules. The presidents and ADs want better non-conference schedules because it's become much more difficult to fill the stadiums in the non-conference when you're playing nobody, right? So everybody kind of understands everybody. I'm saying the collective we understand that non-conference scheduling is going in a direction that we don't want it to go in. No longer are we going to have a lot of big games in the non-conference, not under the current model. You know, the Texas Ohio State game, the Oklahoma Michigan game, while they were great, what we have seen in recent years is a lot of these matchups that have been scheduled for the last five, six, seven, eight years, they're going away. People are getting out of them and getting easier opponents and the reason is access. The 12 team margin is so small that you just can't afford a loss. And I know that people have heard that a lot but we want better non-conference schedules and yet the coaches are unwilling to play the games that will ultimately put them in jeopardy to fall outside of that 12 team playoff. So those are kind of the reasons why the coaches are sitting here and they're saying if you want us to play better non-conference games, if you want me to raise all these dollars, then one, I don't want to be fired and I think we should be expanding because if there's more access, I'll be more willing to play these non-conference games. That's the why, that's the why. It ultimately, I've read some articles like Greg Sankey could have stopped this. No, he couldn't. No, he couldn't. Why? Because the majority of his coaches wanted it and he ultimately works for the majority of his coaches. He works for the sentiment in that room. I told you before the spring meetings that it was going to be a very difficult spring meeting in the SEC because they were the last league that was a holdout to coming on board in terms of favoring this 2014 playoff and I can tell you right now in that room in the spring meetings, the majority sentiment of the coaches and athletic directors were that they wanted expansion. So ultimately it was going to happen. This has been in the works for quite some time. This is not something that just kind of lands with a thud and then the question arises and I see this all the time. I see this all the time. Why don't they care what the fans want? I don't know. I can't give you a good answer to that. I really can't. I can tell you the reasons why it's happening. And ultimately you can see it as a sign of disrespect and I can't argue with you. Okay, I can't argue with you. But ultimately that's just not in their thinking because they're looking at self preservation, trying to generate more valuable non-conference schedules, trying to generate more access for more programs in college football, more fan bases in college football and they don't just say like lift the finger up and be like, check the wind. What's the sentiment of this thing? They didn't care about that in large respect. So that's why the coaches have come around to the 2014 model and that's why we're ultimately here. That's the why. Now let's get into some pros and cons here and talk about maybe some things that maybe you haven't thought of and ultimately I'll give you a kind of where I'm sitting on this thing. Okay, let's start with the pros of the 2014 expansion. All right, I think that you have to first before I start talking, just sit back and think about what happened the last two Saturdays because it's been incredible. It's been incredible. One of the reasons why it's been incredible is because of the parity in college football. I think that we can all acknowledge that the sport has changed and evolved right before our eyes even in the last four, five, six seasons. And we've seen that, we know that. By the way, with things that I know you don't like, a lot of people don't like NIO and they don't like how much money is being spent on rosters. They don't like the transfer portal. But in large respect, the reason we got these weeks that we just got in college football and that we're having this season, that is this amazing season where anyone can beat anyone is because of those things. So as these, the sport has evolved, what we're seeing is that there are more teams that can win on any given Saturday. I think that that's a true statement, which leads me to my first pro. In a 24 team playoff model, I think you would actually have an expanded version of the value of the regular season. Now, I know most people will say, "No, you're killing the regular season." I actually see it opposite. I think there's an expansion of the value of the regular season. And let me talk through it first of all. Top end games are still gonna have value. I think this idea that the judges in the Ohio States are not gonna care and rest players and do all this thing, I don't believe that that's the case. I think that there is value baked into the postseason structure. There is a competitive spirit with these players that all wanna go play at the next level. If we look at these games, even this last Saturday, Kirby Smart set it himself. All of our goals are still ahead of us. In large parts, some of this toothpaste is already out of the tube. The kick six, currently speaking, wouldn't keep Alabama out of the postseason, right? You know, like a great Ohio State Michigan matchup of two undefeated teams, the loser is not kept out of this version of the college football postseason. So there is some toothpaste already out of the tube as it relates to the very top end games in our sport and what they used to mean in the old model and what they currently mean in this model. Now I'm trying to tell you is that if we're expanding the value of the regular season, now you get to look at more teams and more fan bases that feel like they're playing relevant games deep into October and into November. Now I see that as a positive because you as a college football fan, I think one of the things that deep down you actually really want and long for is hope. I'm talking to you, UCLA fan. You did not have hope over the last couple of years, but now all the sudden you get the right coach and the right roster and guess what you have hope and how much fun is it to be a UCLA fan in 2026? I would guess it's pretty fun, right? And all I'm trying to say is that I think that that would be an expanded meaning and value with more fan bases that feel like they're in it for longer in the regular season. And I do think top end games are still going to have importance. They're still going to have value because of the structure of how this postseason is likely to come out. The next teams would have a buy they would have a home second round game. The next eight teams would have home first round games and then the next eight teams would be in the postseason, but travel in the first round. Well, there is enormous value in being in one of those tranches, obviously you want to be included. So just getting in is great. But if you're not just just getting in, then you would definitely want to play at home. And if you've got a chance to have a buy and play at home, you would definitely want to do that. So there is some value and some meaning baked into the system. It's not just like, hey, here's 24 darts bang, throw them against the wall and like, here we go. Everyone's on a neutral. Everyone's getting a break. The system is going to bake in some value for even the top end games, the mid tier games and the bottom end games as it relates to the to the postseason. And I think that you at least have to acknowledge that. And I would again point to the fact, we don't have the kick six impacting the sport like it did when it happened in the iron bowl, any longer. That toothpaste is already out of the tube. So if you're longing for that, we are already past that bridge. We are already past that bridge. One of the other things that gets me excited, and I think that this is a pro, I don't think a lot of people have talked about this, and I don't believe I'm breaking any news. The non-conference schedules are not just, we hope they're going to improve. They will improve. They will be mandated. There will be agreements in place between the major conferences to play games that matter and the non-conference. And I think that that is a great thing. We don't want to play all the directional schools. We don't want to do that in college football. We don't want to watch that as college football fans. What we want to see is Texas Ohio State. We'd love to see Georgia, Oregon. We'd love to see Michigan, Alabama. We want to see these games and I believe that the way that things are going and the structures that will be in place, those games will not only happen, but they will be mandated. You will play nine conference games. You will play at least another power conference opponents. And in many cases, those power conference opponents will be chosen for you out of where you finished in the previous seasons. I think that those types of matchups are going to be highly valuable, not only for the value of the regular season, but also for the excitement of the fan at home. So that, to me, is a huge plus of this thing. And I think that you're actually going to really love that. I think the regular season is going to be better and I do think that the regular season is going to have more value. Now some argue with that, but that's totally fine. Another thing that I think is a huge pro is more playoff games on campus. If you're a great team, you should be rewarded with home games in the postseason. Right now that is not currently the model. If you're a top four seed, you have a long layoff until basically new years and then you've got to play on a neutral site. I believe that that's totally unfair. In fact, in the two seasons that we've seen the 12 team format, we've only had one team get a buy and win, and that was Indiana last year against Alabama and their Osmo. So more home games, more on campus games in the playoff, I think is a good thing. You as a fan have a greater influence over the outcome of these games and you don't have to pay exorbitant travel costs to go and do it. You're not going to be asked to travel all over the country unless your team gets all the way to the end. So to me, that's a good thing. I think that's a big advantage for some of the northern schools who could play some cold games. The old system to me was too penal for the best teams in the country. You can make a strong argument that it was more valuable at times to lose your conference championship game rather than win your conference championship game because the long layoff was a huge detriment. We saw that when Ohio State didn't even play their conference championship game, routes Tennessee and then goes and routes Oregon, who was undefeated in the number one team in the country in that rose bull. Nobody would get more than one home game. So again, you would play those first rounds on campus. You play the second round on campus and you go from there and there wouldn't be as long of a break either. So if you're a great team and you get one of those top eight seeds in a buy, you're not sitting around for a month. At most, I think it would be maybe two weeks that you'd be sitting around and getting that off week, getting healthy and then going ahead and playing. And again, I do still think that there is incentive and the way that it would be built. And so the meaning, listen, I don't think we're going to have teams rest their starters. This is like this big argument that we're going to have an NFL style where a team absolutely captures the number one seed in the playoffs and a buy and they don't care. And so they don't play. I think that there will be incentive baked in even if you're a great team and you're in the top five in the country in the last week of the regular season, you can't afford to lose that game because you could lose your buy. Again, so like there are incentives and value and the value system is baked in to these tranches of eight. You've got eight teams that make it that have to go on the road. You've got the next eight that get to play at home, but don't have a buy and then you've got the eight that excel that get a get a buy and a home game. And so to me, there's incentives within that. I just don't believe in this sport that you're going to have teams resting their starters. If I'm wrong about that, like I will hold my hand up and say that I'm wrong. I don't believe that that will be the case. I mean, can you imagine? Can you let me just paint the scenario for you? Ten and one. Let's say it's even this year, let's say, let's say Ohio State gets to the Michigan game as a ten and one team and it's like they're in, they're in. And Michigan is eight and three. Are you telling me that that game is not going to mean anything? I disagree with that. And I think if you view it through that lens that you would probably come around on that as well. So those are the pros. If you don't agree with any of those, that's fine. And I'm not telling you that you have to. I'm just saying that those are some of the pros. And just remember now, when we talk about the value of the regular season, and I talked about this at length and the off season, you can go back and check it. We'll try to find that episode. We're in a bit of a precarious spot right now in college football. In that, the bulls have already lost all of their meaning, even though some of them still happen. They've lost all of their meaning. And all meaning has been shoved into the 12 spots in the college football playoff. And what we're at risk here is losing the middle class of college football. Because in the old system, pre playoffs, yes, it was it was a very, you know, finite number of teams that we were saying could and could go and compete for the national championship. But there was there was a long list of teams that could still define themselves as successful based on the old format, getting into bowl games that people respected. And that is no longer available to teams. So the hollowing out of the middle class of college football is a real thing. If we want teams to continue to invest in rosters and to play at the top end, then there's got to be some carrot at the end of that. And at this point, some are beginning to think that there is no carrot, that there is no hope. Okay. Now, you could think that, well, this is a bridge too far. And let's go over that. Let's take a look at the cons of the 2014 playoff overarching thought. And I just wanted to reiterate something that I that I already said when you listen to some of these cons, I want you to pay close attention to some of these arguments where again, the toothpaste is already out of the tube. Like we can't go back on some of this. Like I said, the kick six is not determining the postseason anymore in the current format. Alabama would still be in the postseason, obviously eliminated them from the previous postseason model, but it wouldn't in the current postseason. So you have to, you have to kind of put aside what you loved about the past and realize where we are in, in, in the present because it does shape the way that you have to think about this. You can make strong arguments that like this future model is not better than the past models. That's fine. But you still have to acknowledge where we're at now, okay? So some of these arguments that people are adamantly making, the toothpaste is already out of the tube. And I just wanted to say that so that you just have that in the back of your mind as we start talking through some of these, you kind of have that there. The first argument that everyone says is this is going to ruin the regular season, it's going to devalue the regular season. Now, as you know, I do feel opposite of that. I think that the value of the regular season is actually going to be. to expand. But a lot of people disagree with me. And that's totally fun. I'm not telling you that you're wrong. Will there be, you know, three or four lost teams with access to the CFP? In some cases, yes. And for some, that's a bridge too far. And they shut down immediately. And they say, nope, I don't want that. Okay. That's fine. Now, I still would just say we don't have the old model. You know, so the toothpaste is out of the tube a little bit because there are already games like Georgia Auburn from last week, Indiana Ohio State from last week, several games, BYU, Notre Dame, where, you know, yes, it's going to impact the postseason, but we don't know to what degree. And there's a good chance that all of those participants may be saved for Auburn could go to the postseason. I think that we're already here. We're already in, we're already in the era where we have devalued the very best regular season games and that they mean everything towards the national title. But there are a lot of people saying like, well, I don't want the three lost and four lost and more particular in particular, the four lost teams having access. And some people have problems with the three lost teams. Another con is conference championship games going away. That will happen. The championship games will go away. And here's the deal. The coaches don't want to play the conference championship games anymore. I love them. I love calling the big 10 championship game. It's something that I have enjoyed thoroughly. I loved competing for big 12 championships when I was a player, even though we didn't actually win one, but they were incredibly fun to go and compete in. Those are going away. I do hate that. I don't love that. But if you actually look at it in the present, what is the conference championship game actually right now? It's attacks on the best teams in the sport because they've got to go and play an extra heavyweight matchup that is not really going to impact them all that much. And like I said, in the current model and the present model, if you win that game and you get a buy, you've got to sit out for a month and you don't get a home game. So that structure to me is a little bit backwards. It can be punitive for the teams that actually qualify for those games and then go out and win those games. Again, Indiana is the only team in the last two years that have gotten one of those buys sat a month and then gone out and won their game. So the conference championship games going away, that's a con. People don't want to see that. And then this is a good one. And honestly, I think that this is the best one. Hey Joel, are there 24 teams that can actually win a national championship? The answer is no. The answer is no. I'm going to go over that in a little bit and we're going to actually just tear them and we're going to look at like, all right, who do we actually think can win a game in January and the neutral site, you know, based on this year's standings and what we've seen so far. So no, there are not 24 teams that can win a national championship. Now do 24 teams deserve to call themselves successful and define themselves as successful. Maybe you can argue that they do. In the old system, there weren't many that had the opportunity at a national championship and a lot of people loved that. And so these games, and there were a fewer number of these games that meant everything towards the national championship run. Remember now, I'm just telling you that we're going to have a greater number of games that impact the postseason than what we have had in the past and even what we have right now. Eight and four teams getting into the playoff. I think this is the best argument against the expansion of the college football playoff is the idea that you can go eight and four and because of your talent, your roster composition, maybe your brand, that you would still get access to the college football playoff. Let's face it, if eight and four is going to get into the college football playoff, is there ever going to be a year where Ohio State and Georgia and maybe even Notre Dame are not in the CFP? And the answer is no. And that's the best argument against expansion in my estimation. If I was making an argument, that would be my first argument is that, hey, there's not 24 teams that deserve a chance at the national championship. We shouldn't be rewarding eight and four. And are we creating a scenario where there are certain brands in the sport that are just going to be perpetual playoff teams? The answer to that is yes. And I don't have a great pushback on that. I really don't. The one thing that I would would tell you is that I do think that we should be aware of what we have seen over the last two years. And that is that the sentiment over the last two years is that there was a good chance that we were going to get a nine and three team into the 12 team college football playoff. That was not the case in each of the last two years. And now all of a sudden that sentiment has been propped up again from kind of these same writers out there. You constantly hear this narrative like, well, now a nine and three team is going to go to the playoff. I don't know if that's the case. I'm going to be the first one to push back on that. If you actually look at the teams this year and their schedules down the stretch, I think it's going to be a stretch for a nine and three team to actually get into the postseason this year. I mean, there's going to be multiple big 12 teams with one or fewer losses at the end of the season. I think that we're going to have a chance to have a second ACC team that has two losses minimum. We're going to have a few teams in each the big 12 or excuse me, the big 10 and the SEC that don't have three losses. Again, this is not a ton of spots. So I would just kind of push back on that a little bit. And then let's go to the eight and four problem because again, this is the one that I would sit with you on. I would agree with you on this this sentiment that eight and four doesn't deserve a spot in the college football playoff. But the sport is changing. If we actually look at the way that the sport has evolved, if you go back and you look over the last few number of years, what you'll see is that the number of eight and four teams that are even making it into the top 25 is actually dwindling. So why is that? Well, that's the case because I think that we have we have tamped down the quality of the top of the sport. So we don't have as many dominant teams as we used to have certainly in like the 20 teams, you know, when the Bama's and the Georgia's and the Climpsons and even Ohio State during those years, they were just dominating college football. We had more undefeated in those years. And because of that, because of of the top end heaviness of the sport, we had more teams that were eight and four because they all got beat by the teams up here. But as those teams have come back to the pack a little bit, what you see is that you see this kind of dwindling out and phasing out. Like for instance, last year, there was only one eight and four team in the top 25. And if you go back through the years, you see it's more than than one. It's more more than two. It's more than three. So in 2024, there was four or excuse me, there were no four lost teams in the top 25 this year. There's only one currently. It's it's number 23 or excuse me. I'm butchering this last year in 2025. There was one four lost team in the top 25 in 2024. Two years ago, there were zero four lost teams in the top 25. Then you get outside of this playoff era and the NIL era and the transfer portal era. And what you see is more undefeated more four lost teams. So in 2023, there were three undefeated five four lost teams in the top 25 in 2022. There were six four lost teams in the top 25. I think that we're going to be moving into and again, Saturday was was evidence of this and an era in which there are actually more teams beating each other more often, which actually eliminate some of those eight in force. But I can't tell you that that's absolutely the case either. So again, that's the best argument against the 2014 playoff. I can't argue with it. And that's kind of where we sit. Those are the pros and the cons. And that's the why. Again, I tried not to sit here and and be on the soapbox for this thing. I'm in favor of this expansion. You can disagree with me vehemently. And I completely welcome that. Leave a comment down below. Tell me why. I would love to hear some of your thoughts on those pros and cons. Did it get you to think about something in a little different way? Are you are you digging your heels in based on those pros and cons? Let me know down below in the comments here on YouTube. All right. Now let's get into kind of above the line below the line as far as national title contenders for for for this year. Based on what we saw last weekend. And so here's the deal. I think you can make a strong argument that there's a ton of national title contenders. I really do. I also think that you can make a strong argument that there's a few national title contenders. Because what I wanted to do is I wanted a picture. Let's put ourselves in the future a little bit and just picture a January neutral site and some of these teams. Who do we trust to actually put above the line right now? The teams that are like these are the toughest teams to be in a neutral in January. Based on speculation obviously but based on what we've seen. And here's the thing and here's the. Here's the thing you guys are going to get absolutely furious with me about. I only have three teams above the line they all lost Saturday. I know I'm going to start with Notre Dame. I know they they didn't play anywhere close to their best game on Saturday. But that was a hostile environment against the top 10 team and they were one play away and support officiating late. I think they play better. They play cleaner. And if you look at them in a neutral site like they're still a tough out. They will play better than that. CJ Carr is a tough out. He's one play away. He's kind of got a Heisman moment down the stretch. If he gets that that completion laid if the flag comes out if they get the one second Notre Dame almost pulls that one out. They almost pulled that one out in a. hostile environment and again, I'm talking about neutral. So if you get new to Notre Dame on a neutral, now you got to deal with them. By the way, they lose their top defensive end in the game, fifth play of the game for targeting. That probably would have helped against Baron Bachmeier. There's no doubt. So Notre Dame is still above the line for me. Next team up there was Georgia. I know that they lost. I don't expect Gunner Stockton to have three turnovers in them to commit some of those dumb penalties like they did a week ago. So if you just ask me, who are the teams that you trust above the line in January in a neutral site, it's got to be Georgia. I think they'll be one of the more difficult outs in that situation. And then the third team above the line for me as Indiana, even in a loss, guys, what do we see? A second pitch. I mean, they were coming back in a furious manner against Ohio State and could really throw the football. I mean, Becker is an incredible player. Hoover did some things that I really loved late in that game and improved on some of his play that we saw early in the game. And I'm about to get into some film review before after I talk about some of these other teams. And I'll show you what Hoover struggled with early in the game. So Indiana, to me, this is still a top 10 team in yards per play in the country on offense and defense. I look at that team and I come out of that game and I think to myself, even in a loss, I think that's a tough team to beat. Now, here's the ones, here's the two that you're like, you're kidding me, they're not above the line. Miami who's still undefeated in Ohio State, who beat Indiana. And probably BYU. So BYU fans, let's throw you in there as well. Those three teams I didn't put above the line. I don't have a great reason why. Although I will just say this about Miami. I don't love Miami's defense. They could not defend Duce Robinson. For Ohio State, I have no idea what the plan is at quarterback. So I'm reserving the right for future judgment on Ohio State. They would be the team that could easily go above the line if they proved that they've got a quarterback that could go out there and still utilize the nuclear wide receiver of Jeremiah Smith on the outside. They easily could go up there because they're going to be a tough out if they get quality quarterback play. But at this point, I don't know. So that's an asterisk they've got to go below. And for BYU, you can't play at home every single week. That's a great environment, but in a neutral site, maybe that's a total oversight on my part. I had a number one in my poll. And so BYU fans, I'm sure you're thinking to yourself like, "Of course, Clat, you pulled the rug out from under us." Maybe I did, but if I'm thinking about a neutral in January, those are the three teams right now that I really trust. The other teams, while they've played great at times, I don't know about their consistency. Certainly that's the case with Texas. Maybe it's Ole Miss with Tritad Chamblis. UCLA's defense is playing well. Maybe LSU proved something when they dropped Mississippi State. Maybe it's tech with their offense. Maybe it's Kentucky with Will Stein. I love Tennessee's defense. Hate Alabama's offense last week. Loved it two weeks ago. So like you can see where I'm going with this. I don't know if you can be definitive. I made it a small list above the line. Teams that I would trust in a neutral in January. And that's where it's at. Hey, college football season is in full swing. And this is the time of year when you start looking ahead at the games that you really want to go see in person. Once you pick the matchup, the next step is finding the best deal on tickets. And that's where SeatGeek comes in. 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And one of the reasons that I went with Indiana above the line is because I think Hoover is going to correct some of the mistakes that he made on Saturday. As a quarterback, here's the thing. You've got to be incredibly disciplined with the way that you operate the offense. Let me give you a great example of this. Where your eyes go matter. You can run a concept and 99 times out of 100, the ball goes to a very specific player. And it might be actually the number two man and the progression or the guy that you're reading second. But it goes there 99 out of 100 times. But here's the reason. It goes there because your eyes first go to number one. So you can never predetermine where the ball goes. You have got to be disciplined with where your eyes go in a concept. And I think this is something that Josh Hoover learned of valuable lesson on Saturday and this is an exact mold. Let's go to the film right here. This is that critical third down play. I showed it during the broadcast. Here's what we're going to have right here. You're going to have a corner route from this tight end. He's going to go up there. And here's the important part. He's number one, all right. Now, you're going to have the back and he's going to offset and he's going to run what I call a Texas route. And guess what? He's number two in the progression. It has to be read one to two. Now, I want to first just illustrate something as well. The numbers on the field dictate that Hoover should be reading into the short side of the field and reading one to the tight end, two to the Texas route or angle route, whatever you want to call it. Some people call it different things. But Hoover's eyes are actually going to go opposite. And you're going to see his eyes go over here. And there's no reason for that. Why? Because the safety goes this way, the backer goes this way. Everybody for Ohio State is going that direction of what happened on that side of the field. Even though you can't see it on this picture, is that Ohio State had four defenders over three receivers. So they were playing what I call four over three. They had pass ratios on that side. Well, on the boundary side, the short side on this tight inside, what do you have? Well, you've got one, two defenders right there and what do you have? You've got one, two wide receivers. So you've got ratios. Now, you can make them wrong. So this is why it's so important where your eyes go. As I play this, what are you going to see Hoover do right out of the gate? Eyes go to the wrong spot. He is not looking to the right spot. He is looking over to the right side and he should very clearly be reading this back into the boundary. This is the discipline of the concept and the details of the concept. He's looking in the wrong spot. His eyes should absolutely be over here reading this boundary concept. Now, I told you, what did I tell you? One to the tight end, two to the back, right? Now, I want you to watch as he finally flips his eyes over and look at the tight end wide open. So because his eyes are in the wrong spot to start, he comes over and just panics and checks the ball down to the Texas route and he never reads out the concept. The concept, if it was read correctly, is a touchdown and in a 7-3 game at this point, they would go up 14-3 and it would be insurmountable for an Ohio State offense that had not played well up to that point. These are the most critical situations in games and it comes down to discipline and detail. So there you see, right there, the tight end is wide open for the score. Both defenders for Ohio State are driving on the Texas route and what does he do? He throws it over the middle, it's incomplete and then they hit the upright and the game stays 7-3. That's a huge miss. So discipline and detail, that's what he's got to improve on. I believe that he will improve on that moving forward because of the tape that I just showed. This is going to be showed to him this week, obviously. And then the other part of this is that you've got to be on time and on target. So you've got to be disciplined with where your eyes are at. You've got to read the concept as it's intended to be read. And then once you pull the trigger, you've got to be on time and you've got to be on target. And what you're going to see here is that he's just going to miss. You're going to get motion out of Charlie Becker right there. And so once he gets to that spot, what you're going to get is that you're going to get a clear out right here. You're going to get a clear out right here. And then Charlie Becker is just going to wind his way into this hole in the defense right there. And it's going to be wide open, this in cut coming from the right. And as you see this play out, watch it open up right there. Becker is wide open. Becker is coming wide open over the middle. And all Hoover has to do is hit him in the face mask, frame him up. It's an in breaking route. You don't want your wide receiver on any in breaking route extended. So the ball has to be on what's called his frame. You've got to frame him up. These balls have got to hit the body. They've got to hit the face mask like a slant and in cut, a dig route. All of these, they've got to be on the body. Why? Because they're going to get hit. You can't be extending yourself over the middle or else you are responsible for this as a quarterback if your guy gets blown up. OK, so if you just take it back a little bit. OK, so you're seeing this come wide open and then watch where this ball is at. No pressure in the pocket. And he just totally overthrows him. You can't do that on third down. So I think that Indiana will have a great chance to be even better when their quarterback plays better. Because as you saw in a tight game with small margins, those little things, not being disciplined in your detail and not being on time and on target. If you correct those which he did in the fourth quarter, then you've got something and that's something that I think makes Indiana very difficult to beat. I still believe and I said this on Monday after that game, even in a loss, you sit there. And in my estimation, you're like, the whole country has to deal with Indiana again. They have to deal with them again. Let's get to our weekend check in presented by Hilton. When you need a winning team on and off the field, it matters where you stay. Just a real quick check in on where we're at in college football. Guess where we're at? A lot of backups in. We've got five backup quarterbacks in the top 20. It's so hard to have a great backup in the NIL transfer portal era. Think about like Ohio State right now. They lose Julian Sainte. He's going to be out several weeks is what Ryan Day has talked about. Wouldn't it be nice if Lincoln Keenholds was still the backup quarterback, but that's not afforded them anymore. Now, they're trying to figure out what they're going to do. Luke Fahey had won the backup spot who we saw come in against Indiana was not effective. They've got a five star, former five star, and Tavy and St Clair, who apparently got beat out by Fahey. Now, I think they're back at square one for Ryan Day. And he's going to have to figure out who gives them the best chance to win. It's difficult to have a great backup quarterback. Even for Oregon, you spend the money on Dylan Royola and it doesn't really work out. You've got to go to Brock Thomas. A backup right now is just a total crap shoot. And we've got five teams sitting in the top 20 right now. Ohio State, Fahey or St Clair for the next several weeks as Sainte is going to be out. UCLA's winning with Ty Diefenbach. Nico is out for the year. So now it's Diefenbach for the rest of the way for UCLA. He got a big win over Wisconsin, 17, 7. Tennessee's on George McIntyre and for FaZe on Brandon, who's got a shoulder banged up. But McIntyre with a big win over Alabama, maybe that's his job. Kind of like Iowa, Jeremy Hecklinsky. He kind of replaced Hank Brown who was banged up. Now it looks like Hank Brown is back, but Hecklinsky is still going to be the starting quarterback. Right? So we got backups going there at Iowa and then Tremel Jones comes in for Fahey. And at Florida and beats Texas. And he was really good. I loved his mobility in that game. Made some plays in particular on scramble, finding guys in the end zone. I really liked what he was able to do. Fahey looks like he could be coming back. But again, if you're if you're Jones and you're playing well, maybe some are all doesn't make the move. I don't know. Maybe he doesn't make the move. All right, there you go. That's the episode we got picks and previews coming up tomorrow. If you haven't subscribed to the show, please do so. Please leave a comment. Like I said, I didn't want to try to be heavy handed. I wasn't trying to argue for any perspective. I think what I tried to do is tell you what I believe. And then give you the pros and cons and let you kind of make the decision from there. And I know it's not popular and I'm fully aware. And I don't think that you're wrong. Okay, so I'm not telling you that you're wrong or you have to think a certain way on that 24 team expansion. Pick some previews coming up tomorrow, please tweet, have a great night.