Hour 2 – Expanding the College Football Playoff, Dan Wetzel

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Speaker 1: You are listening to The Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

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Speaker 2: Hour two on this Thursday, Dan and the Dan Edge Dan Patrick Show. Got to take a deep breath after what happened yesterday, Michigan, how about nothing happens today. Let me take a breather here, hen you want to talk about content, we got your content stat of the day, brought to you by Penai America, the official trading cards of the program. Let me do my announcer voice. Someone is guilty, No one is innocent. In the new drama series Michigan's Football, No No, No, It's called All Her Fault. A seemingly perfect families world is shattered when their young son goes missing. Streaming now only on Peacock, which is where you can find our show. Good morning if you're watching on Peacock, Thank you for downloading the app. Football coming up tonight, it's the Falcons at the Buccaneers. The Falcons getting four and a half man. You know, the NFC is there for the taking and this should have been the year for the Falcons. When you think about it, they have a lot of it feels like they have names. They have great names. On offense. They don't always play great, and that's the big problem, and you start to wonder Raheem Morris's future in Atlanta with another subpar season. But they're at the Buccaneers, Mike Evans supposed to play. They got Bucky Irvian back, So maybe Tampa can write the ship here. If not, I hope Carolina takes the thing be once again. Now I'm not rooting for anybody other than great content. Carolina, come on down.

00:01:41
Speaker 3: Sure.

00:01:42
Speaker 2: We spent most of the first hour talking about the Michigan situation. Sharon Moore fired and arrested for assault and supposed to have a court hearing at some point this morning. More on this coming up. Dan Wetzel covers college football for the Mothership. He will stop by Rob and Kowski next hour. Yesterday I got information, a lot of information with one of my sources, and one of the pieces of information the Big Ten is pushing for twenty four teams in the playoffs. It looks like sixteen teams next year has a lot of momentum, but the Big Ten wants to have at least four assured spots. It would appear the only way twenty four happens is the replacement of conference championship this is what I'm told. Sixteen has obvious momentum. Simply put, one of the two deciding superpowers would have to back down. That would be the Big ten. I don't want to go from twelve to twenty four. We might end up there, but you know, the infrastructure. This is a foundation that feels like they started building the roof before they put in the foundation. That's what makes me nervous about college football and the powers that be, because once we go to twenty four, now we've opened the door and it's wide open and there's a breeze coming in, and that would concern me. If we go twelve to sixteen, Let's see how it feels, Let's see what happens. Let's see what happens to the bowl games. If we go from twelve teams to sixteen, then if we got everything in order and we do it correctly, then you want to go to twenty four?

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Speaker 3: Okay? Do we need to go to twenty four? No? Sixteen okay, but I wonder can you do?

00:03:36
Speaker 2: Can you slap on the name of a home game for Notre Dame next year and call it the Pop Tart Bowl? But it's not going to be in Orlando. It'll be at Notre Dame. Because I know that you like that big week. It's Bowl week, and a lot of these smaller cities or cities that are hosting a bowl game, you want all the pomp and circumstance and all the celebration and everything that goes along with it. And I understand that. But if I'm a sponsor, I want to make sure that I have a full house for my football game that I'm sponsoring here And this is where if you decide you're going to have these bowl games, you expand the playoffs. So now I got twenty four teams, and now I'm going to have these bowl games. Well, you're going to have a lot of these bull games for the first and second round. They will be home games for these schools. Because this is the big worry with the committee. How many schools fan bases are going to be able to travel back to back and maybe back to back to back weeks to be able to watch their team play. You want to have a full house here. But if you go to twenty four, what's going to happen to the bowl games? Can I just say this this is the well You'll get to the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Rose bu Fiesta Bowl. That's your semi finals. They'll keep those intact. But the other bowl games you want to make sure you don't. You don't want to have a bowl game and kids aren't going to play because there's nothing to play for. I mean, used to be you got a DVD and you got you know whatever, an xbox. Hey enjoy the bull game here unless you do bowl games at their location, and you do that at the beginning of the year. You start the season where somebody's playing in the Pop Tart Bowl in Orlando or the Mayonnaise the Mayo Bowl.

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Speaker 3: Duke's Mayo Bowl, of course, put some respect. Yes, my bad. Isn't there a Baked Beans Bowl? Bush's Baked Beans of course? Of course?

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Speaker 2: But okay, I could still have those bowl games and we could have some good matchups. Also, if we go to twenty four teams, twenty four schools, maybe you're not afraid to schedule somebody out of conference. Like, there's a lot of things in play here. But the fact that the Big Ten wants to have at least four automatic qualifiers, well, if that's the case, and I'm Greg sank you at the SEC. First thing, I'm saying, is all right, you won four, we won six, and then see where that conversation goes. Because the SEC is not gonna let the Big ten have the same automatic qualifiers. They're gonna be like, uh no, we're the SEC. We won at least five, if not six.

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Speaker 4: Yes, eton yeah, I mean I think once you introduced a playoff system, the bowl games lost their value in my opinion, because you can't, like you now on your way to winning the national championship, you're gonna win the Pop Tarts Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the nationally.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't it doesn't make sense.

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Speaker 4: But if you rework the system like you were saying, and the SEC championship game was now the Sugar Bowl every year or something like that, now that makes sense to me, and that bowl still carries some value. It makes the SEC Championship meaningful as well. That to me makes sense. If you know, when the Rose Bowl was the PAC twelve versus the Big Ten, that made a lot of sense. That was fun. Now you're just well, let's call the quarterfinal the Rose Bowl. Now we'll just make it that that just there's no value in that anymore.

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Speaker 2: Well, but it would have value because the game would mean something, and that's what the Bowl committee wants to make sure that these games are going to mean something to these kids, right, And that's where it's tricky. But this and look, I'm just workshopping this. Nobody's told me, Hey, you know, you can have a home game at Notre Dame and we just put a bowl name.

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Speaker 3: Attached to that.

00:07:36
Speaker 2: Because you know, some of these schools are get to home games and then you're going to go into we're going to get to the big four bowl games. What do you do with the other ones? And that's why can you do it? To start this season? Can you own the month of September with these bowl games? Which would be kind of fun. Now, granted you're competing with the NFL, but you're always competing with the NFL. But now you get a marquee matchup. Let's say it's Texas and Notre Dame to start the year, and it's going to be in the Pop Tart Bowl. Everybody benefits from that, including us as fans.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Pauling, I just quickly.

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Speaker 5: It took like five minutes with AI to whip up a twenty fourteen playoff and so one of the first round games.

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Speaker 3: Was Michigan at Texas.

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Speaker 5: You could give that to the Xbox Bowl, which is played in Frisco, Texas, And now it's just moved to Austin because they're the higher seed. And now you have the Xbox Bowl as a first round playoff game at UT eighty thousand, and now the sponsor gets way, way, way more eyeballs. The only downside, like you said, is the normal cities that get some of.

00:08:42
Speaker 6: These balls will lose out.

00:08:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, but the sponsor will get way more of a payoff.

00:08:46
Speaker 2: We'll have more on the Michigan situation and suggestions for their new head coach. You have the transfer portal coming up they have are they going to play? I guess they have to play in the Citrus Bowl, right.

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Speaker 7: Man?

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Speaker 2: I don't know if they How about Notre Dame replaces in a Citrus Bowl, But yeah, you don't have your coach. How many players are going to be there? And you got the Citrus Bowl coming up at the end of the year.

00:09:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, PAULI or Notre Dame versus Michigan in the we don't want to be here bull. Mmm.

00:09:18
Speaker 2: One other story and it was kind of well, obviously it was dominated by the Michigan story yesterday or we forgot all about it. Joe Burrow had a press conference yesterday and Joe Burrow, it felt like it went to a dark place and you start to think about everything he's been through, and I'll get to all of his injuries and how many times he's been sacked and just had a home break in. I mean, he's gone through an awful lot. And he spoke to the media yesterday and this is a portion of what he had to.

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Speaker 8: Say, go and keep doing this. I have to have fun doing it. I've been through a lot and if it's not fun, then what am I doing it for? So that's the mindset I'm trying to bring to the table. And I've been through more than most and it's certainly not easy on the brain or the body.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: He turned twenty nine yesterday, not exactly in a celebratory mood there so he tore his ACLMCL that cost him the tail end of his rookie season. Another season ending injury in twenty twenty three. Tore ligament in his wrist of his throwing hand turf tow this year that required surgery. He was out for over two months. He's been sacked at least forty times in each of the last three seasons that he's played sixteen or more games, So he's been through a lot. Came back trying to get his team maybe into playoff contention. They ended up losing. He had a couple interceptions there and now basically out of playoff contention, And well, if this is an Andrew Luck situation, because that's what came to mind. Andrew Luck, I believe, is twenty nine years of age when he decided he was going to walk away from the Colts because he wasn't having fun. He had all these injuries. They had a bad offensive line. He paid the price for that. Then they got to the point where they had a good offensive line. Andrew Luck was twenty nine when he walked away from football. Joe Burrows looking around, going what am I doing? If I'm not enjoying this? Why am I playing? And when you think of all the injuries here, it feels like it's every year it's something, and some seasons it's been more than just one injury. You're not on a good team, you have a team that doesn't have a defense. You got a couple of good weapons there, but this should have been a year where you guys were going to win this division. But this is just like Andrew Luck. The Colts were favored to win their division and then he walked away in preseason. And maybe it's just one of those bad days on your birthday. But I don't know, maybe your birthday you turn twenty nine and you start to look around and you go, what is the future here? And does he want to be in Cincinnati? So those were the things that kind of came to mind. I thought it deserved more attention because you were actually hearing something Marvin played again because it it feels real and it went dark.

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Speaker 8: Do I want to keep doing this? I have to have fun doing it. You know, I've been through a lot, and if it's not fun, then what am I doing it for? So's the mindset I'm trying to bring to the table, and I've been through more than most and it's certainly not easy on the brain or the body.

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Speaker 3: Okay, that to me it was a big deal.

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Speaker 2: And look, these go through dark periods when you when anybody who's had an injury in the rehab process, you go through a dark period because people will ask you, hey, how you feel, how are you doing, Hey, when are you coming back? You know, you don't want to go out, you just want you know, I'll do my rehab. Then I'm gonna And he worked hard to come back, and we even wondered, I wondered, why are you coming back? And then all of a sudden, you lose that game to Buffalo, and now you realize, okay, I'm back. Now he's got to play four more games and you have nothing to play for, but you have to go out there because you're the leader. And I think he allowed I think he allowed himself to speak honestly instead of just saying, you know, hey, uh, you know people say we have nothing to play for.

00:13:50
Speaker 3: We do. We always have something to play for.

00:13:52
Speaker 2: You know. We play for the fans, and we play for you know, each other, you know whatever.

00:13:56
Speaker 3: He could do all of that, but I.

00:13:59
Speaker 2: Think he gave give you a true peak inside his mind right now of what am I doing?

00:14:06
Speaker 3: Why isn't this fun? It should be fun? Yes, Ton, And he.

00:14:11
Speaker 6: May be feeling like this for a while, but you nailed it with the Bills. They win that game. They're one behind Baltimore and two behind Pittsburgh with four left, and they're still something to play for him, maybe he's not so down and thinking like this is just a terrible situation.

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Speaker 2: Well, if they beat the Bills, then he probably has a different mindset because now we're in it, Like, Okay, it's a long shot, but we're in it. And that's all you want. You know, when you get eliminated and you got another month to play and you're going out there and you've been beat up, you work so hard to come back, and then all of a sudden, you're like.

00:14:48
Speaker 3: I got to gear up. I got four more games to play.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, Pauling And in the fourth quarter of that game, they were going in to take a two score lead, he throws two straight picks off tip passes and that was the game. So he was directly involved. It was like, of course, he didn't have a terrible game. He had a great game, but those two plays must have been haunting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and those were fluke plays, but they were back to back interceptions of pick six and then the other one, and Buffalo came back to win that game. Cincinnati was the better team until Buffalo took advantage of them. All Right, we'll take a break. Who are the candidates for Michigan and they better come on down now. Also, we'll hear from Philip Rivers and Travis Kelce talks about a rough season, so a lot of things to get to. Rob Gronkowski will join us in an hour from now. We'll take a break. We're back after this Dan Patrick Show.

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00:16:13
Speaker 3: Fox Sports Radio on.

00:16:15
Speaker 2: YouTube, Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon and comment away. We'll talk to Dan Wetzel, ESPN senior college football writer. He'll join us coming up here in a moment. Uh Jay and Delaware. Hi Jay, what's on your mind today?

00:16:32
Speaker 9: Hey?

00:16:32
Speaker 10: Dany Hey Dan hay tellis two quick things for your dambling podcasts for Dylan and Shay. The Niners surprisingly offensive line is third in the league and pass pro win rate, and the Titans only got one sack on Schadler last week. So I'm saying take the over on everything for Brock and Christen this week, and also for the Michigan head coaching jobs and the name that hasn't been thrown out there. He's also free three pat twelve championship, went to a BCS title game, and has a national championship as the offensive coordinator for Though, I say, Buck, guys, Chip Kelly, baby.

00:17:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think Chip Kelly would be hired. I brought up Brian Kelly, but I was told last hour that is not going to happen either. You know, John Gruden's name is going to be brought up, but you know he's working for barstool now. And I don't know if you want to go from working one or two days to working twenty hours a day. But Michigan is a wonderful job, a coveted job. But you have a window here. It's a window of opportunity for somebody, but it is a window that is going to be really challenging trying to keep these kids there. Let's see, how about Matt in Illinois? Hi Matt, what's on your mind?

00:17:53
Speaker 1: Hey?

00:17:53
Speaker 10: Dan?

00:17:53
Speaker 11: Hit in it first time, long time six foot in approving two seventy. I'm a Patriots fan in the Midwest. Gronk is to go Gladdam's call him and say thank you's coming in. I'm not a college fan. I don't watch college football. You guys kind of stole my thunder a little bit talking about it. But heep the goal the bowl games revelant and helping the playoffs. Why don't we keep it with the selection committee keeps their standard review and selection for the twelve games, and then the next eight months teams get We bring the bowl games up, make them a little more relevant, and the next day month teams can battle for a playoff position.

00:18:36
Speaker 2: For somebody who doesn't want college football, you got a lot of opinions about college football there.

00:18:42
Speaker 3: Thank you for the phone call. I'm a vegetarian. Here's how to cook of stake. Fred and Sacramento. Hi, Fred, woo's on your mind?

00:18:49
Speaker 12: Hey guys, Happy Thursday?

00:18:53
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:18:54
Speaker 12: Dan. I'm wondering who or what group of knucklehead Barney Five's came up the idea of adding outhouse bids. I'm referring to JMU and Tulane bids as an outhouse because if you guys have ever been in what, you know what they smell like.

00:19:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm all for the underdog.

00:19:14
Speaker 2: I just want to make sure that these games are competitive if we're talking about the best teams. But this is what the College Football Playoff Committee came up with. You know, win a conference highest ranked, you know all the math that goes into this. You know the points spread at Oregon, what is it, twenty one twenty two points there with JAMU, I like that they get an opportunity. I just don't want them to be one sided. And then we go, yeah, they never should have been in. Okay, they got in because you know, they did what they were supposed to do.

00:19:47
Speaker 13: Yes, Marvin, but sometimes blowouts happened. Clemson blew out Alabama Pace, you got blown out a national championship game. But Boise State beat Oklahoma in a B sist.

00:19:56
Speaker 2: Oh I get so, I know, but we don't focus on those games. You know, Notre Dame got blown out a national title game, but if it's the little guy and they get blown out, they'll be like, oh, remember when Hawaii played didn't they play like Georgia in Atlanta and they got blown out? And everybody's like, Oh, they never was in Connecticut in a bowl game?

00:20:16
Speaker 3: Are you talking about the Timmy chang Ero, Timmy shang That none in my watch?

00:20:22
Speaker 2: June Jones Dan Wetzel, He covers college football for The Mothership College Game Day podcast, New York Times best selling author. When did the investigation begin at Michigan? From what you've been told.

00:20:40
Speaker 6: Michigan got a tip earlier in the fall about this situation. I think there was an investigation then that did not come up with any of the proof that they needed. More information came to light recently, leading to I think a big revelation on Wednesday, which led to what they called credible evidence, which led to the Chryl Moore's immediate firing. What do you think it was a process?

00:21:09
Speaker 3: What do you think changed here in the last forty eight hours?

00:21:14
Speaker 6: I think they got proof that the you know, look he was he had an appropriate relationship with a staff member. I mean that's you. You cannot have the boss, I mean it's his university policy, it's his contract. That's pretty much any company in the country. So once they were able to have what they called credible evidence or proof that that occurred, that there was no I don't think there was any hesitation at that point. I mean, this isn't great timing for Michigan, you know, I'm sure. I mean, if they if they wish, they probably wish they could have known three weeks ago put them in a different spot as they try to make a higher So but I think they just got that, they got that final information or the proof, and that was it.

00:21:58
Speaker 3: What questions do you have today, Well.

00:22:03
Speaker 6: There's a lot we're waiting for the official details on exactly not so much what got him fired. I think we can all figure that one out, but what happened after. And you know, look, he was the Pittsfield Township police, which is just outside of ann Arbus. So they were called to this residence at four ten pm. We broke the story maybe about four thirty five that he had been fired, and at four I think forty six, the university put out a statement saying he had been fired. So fairly recently after he was fired, he went almost immediately to this house. What happened between him being informed. I don't know the exact time when he was informed, but I think the team meeting was going on while he was there. So what happened there? What happened at this residence that led to an assault investigation for an alleged assault. Where was he in that time frame and those details? I think because he's now obviously sitting in u in custody waiting to see whether the Washtonaw County prosecutor will charge him.

00:23:14
Speaker 2: Now you got the coaching search is on, and as you said, if they knew three weeks ago, Matt Campbell's now in play for them, and a couple other opportunities as well. So they got to expedite everything and they got to keep everybody on board. You got recruits you just signed up that you know it brought, you know, their quarterback Rice Underwood. Now LSU may go, hey, do you want to now come to LSU. I mean, it feels like everything's on the table. But if you were doing a short list here, who would you go after?

00:23:46
Speaker 6: If you're Michigan, Well, I think that the short list this is the problem. And I look at I think Dan, I've been on the show a long time with you. I think he you know, I'm pretty skeptical of timing and all the things. I don't see how this there's a lot of skeptics of why why did this happen today? For Michigan, I'm like, I don't see how this was beneficial to them. Obviously they would have had a different set of candidates. A number of candidates were hired, A number of others signed extensive deals to stay that potentially take them off likely take them off the market. Now, maybe they were willing to sign extension because they weren't really a candidate at Penn State, or they didn't want the Penn State job or the Florida job. But Michigan is a little bit different. But a guy like Matt Campbell, he's available a couple weeks ago and he isn't now. I would say that the candidates are going to be Alabama's Kitlin de boor whether they can get him to leave. He has a very good situation in Alabama. People close to that situation talk about, you know, his recruiting class, not a lot of trip kids hitting the portal momentum of the program. All that the downside, you're following Nick Saban. If you don't win national titles, fans go what's up? You go ten and two and make the playoffs every year. At Michigan, they're pretty happy. So he's going to be a candidate, whether he's interact or not. I think, you know Jed Fish up at Washington, Eli Drinkwitz at Missouri, and a bunch of other hosts of other candidates, and maybe some of these guys that again they signed a deal to stay. Maybe Michigan changed their mind. Jesse Mintor, the defensive coordinator for the Chargers, who obviously is working under Harball, had been at the University of Michigan. It would be a popular choice there. Michigan's an interesting job though. You could get all sorts of different NFL interests that maybe wouldn't go for another position in the thing. It's a nice mix that school. I mean, it's chaotic, they're constantly in scandal, but it's a nice mix of like, we can win. We have the resources, we have the money, the alums, the stadium, the brand, all of that bought. And I hate to say it's not chaotic, because it's always chaotic at Michigan, But like the governor of Michigan is not going to be involved in the search. The fans aren't expecting national type five national titles in the next seven years, So there's some and ann Arbor is a good place to live. And the Detroit airports right there are big airports. Some of the things that maybe an NFL coach is going, I don't want to go to a college town out in the middle of nowhere. There's there's a lot. Michigan has a lot of appeal that maybe a couple of other jobs wouldn't.

00:26:18
Speaker 2: He's Dan Wetzel, The Mothership host College Game Day podcast New York Times best selling author. What do you think is the endgame for Notre Dame? After Pete Bavakua came on and talked about the permanent damage done by the acc to Notre Dame, I.

00:26:34
Speaker 6: Think Notre Dame will calm down and there's nothing will come of it. I'm this this three day press tour. You you started it all, Dan, you started It's really your fault. I think I don't know what I don't know what this was, but I think there there there was a lot of people in Notre Dame very upset, and you see the ad coming out doing. You don't see Marcus Freeman, you don't see the president of the school or anything like that. You see him taking this, and I don't know. I mean, it's not permanent damage is not There's no permanent damage in college athletics. I mean you could be dead enemies today and best friends tomorrow. It doesn't matter. My thing with Notre Dame. I thought Notre Dame was capable winning national title. The playoff would be a heck of a lot better with them in it. It's really disappointing, and I get how the players are disappointed. This entire you know, argument about how the playoff worked would have been solved if the ACC had a different tiebreaker for the fifth distermination of a five way tie break, if they just did rankings instead of whatever, whatever the heck they had. Yeah, we would have had an ACC championship game of Miami versus Virginia. Miami either wins gets the automatic bid, Notre Dame is in, or Virginia wins. Then you say, sorry, Miami, you got three losses at this point and Notre Dame is in and we only have one group of five. Like people want to blow the whole thing up. It's a tie breaker at the fifth level. Like it's just it wasn't good and and acc should have seen it, come in and changed it. But when you go there's two there's two ways to get in the playoffs, right, you win your champoutference championship, or you get in this at large back alley knife fight where anything can happen. People get left out for this criteria that you don't know what's coming. Notre Dame sees their independence is great value. It's more valuable than being in a conference. So they are going to be in this mix every single time. And last year it worked out for him. It didn't for Alabama and Miami. This year worked out for Alabama Miami, not for Notre Day you don't know, but for if Notre Dame didn't alert their players and their coaches, if the administration wasn't sitting there going in on Sunday saying, guys, this is a this is a coin flip. We got no idea, and you just walking in saying, don't worry, everything's good, We're in. You have not paid any attention to the way this works the last fifty fourteen years. You are paid a lot of money to not be blindsided, and they said, well, we're blindsided, and that's what's bothering us. We don't like the nobody likes the process. You cannot be blindsided this job. So I think there was a real dereliction of letting the players know because I think they would be less disappointed they walked in saying, hey, you know, this stinks. It stinks we could have won it, but it wasn't. The rug pulled out. There is no rug in the at large selection process.

00:29:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm telling my friends who were Notre Dame grads, they'd be like, what do you think I go. It's up in the air, you know, prior to it. So if I felt that Pete Bavaqua and Marcus Freeman should have felt that as well. Before I let you go, had a source who told me that the Big Ten is pushing for twenty four playoff teams. They want to get four automatic qualifiers. At least we're going to go from twelve to sixteen. It feels like I don't think we're ready to go from two twelve to twenty four.

00:30:02
Speaker 6: But your thoughts, Yeah, the twenty four is a horrible plan. I mean, it's just it's terrible because it's not even twenty four because what the Big ten wants to do is they take their four bids and they want to play three games on the conference championship weekend with their one and two would still play so last year, listen, if it was this year, Indiana House, they still play for conference title, and then three would play six and so I don't know what they'd be, but like Iowa is like six maybe, and then Michigan is five and four would play five. So you can call it a twenty fourteen playoff. But once you start having play in rounds, that's the playoff also, so it quickly becomes like a thirty two team playoff if you extracted out all the big This is a terrible idea. It's just a terrible idea. The north star of college football needs to be to balance maintaining the importance of the regular season, which is the best in space sports, with an inclusive and big, exciting playoff. And I'll give you example why this twelve is working. First weekend of the year, No to Dame lost to Miami. It cost them, And there was another one that first weekend of the year. I can't remember now that one's cost them right. So when you go into next year, you know, watching on the first week Labor Day weekend and there's a big matchup between two top ten teams losing matters, you just can't sit there and be like, oh, we got five losses, we came in sixth and the Big ten. We're good. We still got a chance. Nobody thinks Michigan should have another chance. They weren't that good. They only had three losses. So that plan is I don't even know if the people who come up with those plans even like college football. I get what they're trying to make money, but like, it has got to be something for the fans of this sport where you maintain something before we don't just go from four to what's really thirty two teams. If you extract that plan out, that's crazy.

00:32:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that makes me nervous when you said it's a terrible idea. That that that's when they go, hey, you know what, everybody come into the deep end of the poll. We'll figure it out late. That's always they they go, let's do this and then we'll figure it out after the fact. That's why we get into these situations with the college football not to mention college basketball was going to expand as well, they're.

00:32:25
Speaker 6: Gonna go asking for that. Who was asking for that?

00:32:28
Speaker 3: Uh?

00:32:29
Speaker 6: You always asking coaches and athletic directors who have bonuses in their contract that they get in the Nobody is asking for that, and you it's yeah, it's they make big decisions on a whim to try to solve the last problem that the big decision created. So now they're like, well, the problem is our league is too big. Well listen, Big ten, who the heck told you to go blow up the PAC twelve. That's a you problem, not our problem. You destroyed that league. You destroyed the old Big East. You altered like the Big ten reach havoc on college athletics with their bad ideas, followed by the next it's like my golf game, Dan, a fix on a fix on a fix, you know the slice, And now I'm you know, so this is this is a terrible plan. I think they will go to sixteen. I think sixteen works if they eliminate the conference championship weekend. Speed this thing up. Everybody gets in more home games too. Please, can the fans like attend a game at their own stadium not be told only the rich people that can fly to Glendale for this weekend and New Orleans the next weekend. They're the only fans to get to ten games.

00:33:37
Speaker 3: Well that's that's another story though for another day.

00:33:40
Speaker 2: Dan. The future of these Bowl games. I mean, I maintained, why don't we start the year with these Bowl games so you can have matchups that maybe you wouldn't have and maybe the pool and weed Eater bull survibes and maybe the Pop Tart bull survibes, but you get some good matchups at the beginning of the year.

00:34:01
Speaker 3: If you're going to expand sixteen teams.

00:34:04
Speaker 6: What was the last Bowl game that closed in I think it was the Blue Bonnet.

00:34:10
Speaker 3: The asset business.

00:34:12
Speaker 6: They don't go out of business. They I've been hearing for twenty years that the bowl industry is dead. They keep making more bowls. You know why. People like to watch football and they like to gamble on football, and it doesn't They will play two six and six teams will play it like the New Mexico Bowl and three million people will watch.

00:34:34
Speaker 3: Isn't there a five win team.

00:34:36
Speaker 6: Donny, five and seven?

00:34:39
Speaker 11: We don't care.

00:34:40
Speaker 6: Like you can watch a game between like the seventh place acc team against the sixth place Big Ten team played in Fenway Park, you know, baseball stadium named after uh, you know, Wasabi computer security And like, I'm all in, I gotta watch this game. Hunt. These games don't go out of business. They never go out of busines this you and I will buy any game that wants to go out of business. These are cash hows. These guys are crying poverty. Sorry, your game doesn't matter as much you There's like forty of them now, how many were there twenty years ago when the sports was dying.

00:35:14
Speaker 3: The money the people you work for.

00:35:16
Speaker 2: Now, that's the reason why we got forty Bowl games because they need programming, and as.

00:35:21
Speaker 6: We should, we're serving the public.

00:35:24
Speaker 2: Dan He is an ESPN senior writer. I hope I didn't you know upset you today?

00:35:30
Speaker 6: What you do?

00:35:31
Speaker 3: I don't know. You just seem like you're fired up.

00:35:33
Speaker 6: I'm just I'm naturally passionate. It's a good all right, It's been a while. Jeez, get me on Bowl games. I'm ready. I'm not upset. I mean love it, thank you, listen. I think the pop tar Bull is we need to protect the sanctity of the po.

00:35:48
Speaker 3: We really do so that'll be your legacy. That's your legacy'll be it.

00:35:51
Speaker 6: Yeah, well I will die on that.

00:35:54
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:35:54
Speaker 7: Dan.

00:35:54
Speaker 2: That's Dan Wetzel, ESPN, senior writer, host of College Game Day podcast, New York Times best selling there.

00:36:00
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:36:01
Speaker 2: When they say, do you remember Dan Witzel, what's she famous for? He saved the pop Tart bowl.

00:36:07
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, it's a solid like yeah, it is really Yeah, twenty years of pop Tart comes out with his head on top.

00:36:12
Speaker 1: Take a break. We're back after this. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.

00:36:26
Speaker 2: Travis Kelce, coming off one of his worst games of his career, was on his New Heights podcast and he tried to sum up this season in Kansas City.

00:36:37
Speaker 14: It's, uh, it's been a tough go around for the past two days. Yeah, it's just you put in all this work and hopes that it pays off, and right now it's just for whatever reason, man, it's little things.

00:36:49
Speaker 6: It's I don't know, discipline.

00:36:51
Speaker 14: I feel like I've always had the answers in years past, and this year it's just I just can't find them. And I keep thinking, if I show up to work and I put in the work, and I fix the issues through my practice habits and through perfecting the game plan and my fundamentals and what I'm being taught, and go out there and try and play my ass off for my guys next to me, it's all going to come together like it has in years past, and this year is just not.

00:37:15
Speaker 2: Man's Travis Kelcey with his brother the New Heights Podcast. Yeah, reality is starting to set in because his career is going to be over probably in four weeks. Hall of Fame career, first ballot, Hall of Famer. But you know when people say, oh, you never want to go out like this, what makes you think that next year will be better?

00:37:37
Speaker 3: Because what another year of experience.

00:37:43
Speaker 2: He's fortunate that he got this this year because I thought he was done last year. Now he's shown signs that he can still play, but not on a consistent basis not the go to guy that we come to expect. Really, the safety security blanket for Patrick Mahomes, it's just not there anymore. And I think you're hearing somebody say I put in all the time you can put in all the time, but man, father time's undefeated. Yes, Marvin, but I.

00:38:11
Speaker 13: Can understand him wanting to give it one more go because you are really close to winning the super Bowl, Like, look, a couple more plays, we win the super Bowl, Let's run this back one more time and we can get back here because.

00:38:22
Speaker 2: You're not even going to make the playoffs. Oh, I know, but I'm thinking that's how Oh you're saying this year.

00:38:27
Speaker 13: Right, No, I got that, But going back to last year, yeah, Kelsey's probably like, look, we're a couple of plays away from winning the super Bowl. You know what, Let's run it back one more time. But it hasn't been the case. Same record as the Dolphins.

00:38:38
Speaker 6: Yeah, I know.

00:38:42
Speaker 2: Nick Sirianni, he gets paid to be on WIP in Philadelphia, probably a weekly thing for the coach, and he was asked this question.

00:38:52
Speaker 5: Is there a possibility later this season if he continues to struggle, that you can make a change at the quarterback spot.

00:38:58
Speaker 7: No, I think that's ridiculous. You know, I think you know Jalen Hurts. I know every time I go out in that field with Jalen Hurts as our quarterback, we have a chance to win the game.

00:39:10
Speaker 3: The guy was the Super Bowl MVP. This is really who he is.

00:39:15
Speaker 2: You have to structure an offense where it is not dependent on him throwing the ball forty times. That to me is the issue. Who's calling the plays, the head coaches. But you're gonna tell me Tanner McKee gives you a better chance of winning. Come on, that's a silly question, yes, Mark.

00:39:38
Speaker 13: How many fan bases are like this? Where your super Bowl MVP from last season they have this question for the coach. How many fan bases are like this?

00:39:47
Speaker 2: Well, the Giants fans would probably do this. They did this with Eli Manning Tom Coughlin. The Jets are never good enough where they'd be asking these kind of questions. They never accomplished anything where they'd be like, man, why are you still going with that guy? I don't know if you if there's another fan base that would do that, but you know that. I mean maybe Pittsburgh maybe, but you know with the Eagles, those fans, Yeah, I can see that. Uh JJN Florida, Hi JJ, what's on your mind?

00:40:21
Speaker 11: Dan?

00:40:22
Speaker 9: Thank you for taking my call. I'm curious if you watched the thirty for thirty last night about Stuart Scott.

00:40:28
Speaker 3: I did not.

00:40:31
Speaker 6: I did.

00:40:31
Speaker 9: I thought it was any worthy. They did an outstanding job. I wasn't aware that he divorced his first wife. I wasn't aware he was sick three years. Let me tell you, your hair looked Olympic worthy back in the day. It's funny to watch now, but it's a really good show. I would recommend watching.

00:40:51
Speaker 3: Well now, I'll watch if they have my hair on there. Yes, Paula, your hair.

00:40:54
Speaker 5: Got a lot of run, a lot of run. I watched the first half of it. There's a lot of Stuart growing up that I didn't know about that really gives a great backstory.

00:41:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some revisionist history with people's opinions of Stuart. He went through a lot, put up with a lot, fought through a lot, and at the very end he fought really, really hard. Rob Gronkowski joins his final hour of the program after this