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From BCS to Playoffs: Time for Another Shift in College Football
This episode delves into the intricacies of college football playoff selection, exploring the biases and controversies surrounding the committee's choices. We tackle the questions of fairness and whether the current system effectively identifies the best teams while discussing the potential need for reform in the ranking process.
• Examination of the inception and evolution of the College Football Playoff
• Discussion of controversial selections, including Cincinnati and TCU
• Analysis of Alabama vs. Florida State debate regarding deserving versus best teams
• Consideration of ranking systems: preseason vs. power rankings
• Suggestions on improving the current playoff selection method
hey, hey, before we start the show, I want to welcome you to the third down conversation, your place for sports and entertainment. Please remember to like, subscribe, follow, drop a comment, leave a review. Five stars, please. Shows will drop every Tuesday and I want you guys along for the ride and also follow me on social media Instagram, twitter, youtube At the Third Down Conversation. All right, let's jump into the show. What's up? It's the third down conversation, your place for sports and entertainment. I am d turnip seed and on today's episode, we talking the college football playoff. We talking the college football playoff. Was it a success? Did they pick the right teams? What changes can be made? I'm going to break all that down. Like always, I keep it real, I keep it authentic and I'm always in context. Let's jump in. All right, everybody. Today we're going to talk a little college football playoff committee and I got a little help from my man t, so t what's up? Well, how you doing, man yo yo how are you?
Speaker 2:another day, another dollar. That's what I tell myself, at least. But anyway, let's, let's jump into this game. So the playoff committee it came what? Uh? 2014, when they first announced we're gonna leave the bcs and we're going to a 14 playoff, what did you think?
Speaker 1:I mean, I thought it was crazy. Then I said there was nothing wrong with the bcs. The bcs had it right.
Speaker 2:You can't argue computers can't argue science yeah, there's no way you believe that like come on that.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought in 2014 okay okay, now again, again. It was didn't alabama and osu break that?
Speaker 2:I think the system there well, yeah, because they had the whole rematch and people got upset like, well, how are they gonna play again?
Speaker 1:yeah, so alabama and osu broke that system.
Speaker 2:I would say so. I guess, when this whole thing came into existence, I never understood why it was four when at the time there were five power conferences.
Speaker 1:That didn't make sense. People were so adverse to change. Throw too many teams out there and scare everybody off.
Speaker 2:They should have started with six. You start with six. That way you can have all the power fives in and then you got one at large team.
Speaker 1:Six, eight, something that made sense. Four in that given infrastructure didn't really make sense at the time.
Speaker 2:From about 2014 to 2020, I believe the committee had it pretty easy. All your mainstays were there your, your Georgia's, your Michigan's, your Clemson, alabama. But in 2021 they vote in Cincinnati, a group of five. They put them in over Notre Dame a 10-2 Ohio State and a 11-2 Baylor who won the Big 12.
Speaker 1:I think that was the most controversial thing the committee had done up until that point. But I think everybody was kind of the consensus on the top three teams that year with Alabama, georgia and Michigan I mean so I think a four spot. I think everybody kind of knew it was still going to boil down to either Alabama, georgia or Michigan that year. So they felt like I don't know, I don't like to think the committee plays to both sides, but they felt like, oh, we could give one of the group of five here and still know that it's not going to matter in the grand scheme of things. And still know that it's not going to matter in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker 2:So the outcry wasn't going to overshadow the end result. I mean, I can see where you're coming from on that I can. I just don't or didn't feel like they should have been there. I mean, if you look at who Ohio State played, Baylor goes 11-2 and win their conference you can't tell me that cincinnati played they won their conference yes, they won their conference, cincinnati.
Speaker 2:They did beat notre dame. So if you want to put the man over notre dame, that's fine, that's fine. I ain't got no problem with that, because you know Notre Dame doesn't have a conference, which is a whole other story. But you got 10-2 Ohio State, 11-2 Baylor. Come on, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean they went into Notre Dame, won at Notre Dame that year. That was obviously a big win. You know, other than that there's nothing else that really jumps off the page. But you know they play alabama and they they don't get blown out but they lose by 21. I don't, I didn't hate it. I guess I was just more indifferent to that pick at the fourth spot. Yeah, maybe, uh, ohio state or a baylor gets a better game, but I mean alabama was playing their best football at the end of the year that year unfortunately that's true.
Speaker 1:I can't stand Bama well, georgia was playing their best ball too, after after losing the SEC championship look I have.
Speaker 2:I don't like Bama or Georgia. I'm, you know, I'm an Auburn guy. No secret, I'm an Auburn guy, you know. When Bama and Georgia played in the national championship, I wish I could have blew the stadium up like Bane did in Batman. Nobody wins.
Speaker 1:Game's over.
Speaker 2:But I was for sure, pulling for Georgia. I loved every moment, every moment Loved it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were at that point with Kirby. You just had to kind of pull for him right To go in there and beat Saban after losing all those games.
Speaker 2:What you just said sounds very noble, but for me, I just didn't want to hear the Bama fans brag. I was tired Like I was tired of it. They were on my last nerves. I was tired Like I'm. I was tired of it Like they were on my last nerves. I just please no. As an Auburn fan, you walk around and you mind your own business doing football season, you cool, and this random person come up to you Road dot. Hey, bro bro.
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to.
Speaker 2:I'm just, I'm just picking up eggs, man Like chill out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you can't even go to the store wearing your stuff.
Speaker 2:That's all I'm saying, man. That's all I'm saying. So Georgia wins. They quiet. I'm good, I can go get my eggs in peace.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, that was a fan base. That doesn't really. I don't know if it's just gonna say that, like, obviously we don't live in georgia, but you know we don't.
Speaker 2:We don't hear a lot of noise out, out and about right now what I have heard is their fans like, like to bark at you, which is look man, that's weird, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Like I ain't fixing to bark at a grown man exactly and I'm definitely not wearing shoulder pads with spikes to a football game to paint myself.
Speaker 2:But I mean, it's their thing she's signing for the wwe man yeah, geez so the next season they vote in tcu, and this one was a little little tricky as well, because TCU gets in over a 10-2 Bama, over a 10-2 Tennessee and over an 11-1 Clemson who won the ACC and this one was. I think people were upset about TCU getting in because they lost the conference championship to Kansas State.
Speaker 1:Again. It was like one of those things like you lose the conference but I mean you go in and you beat Michigan in the first round matchup game. I mean everybody knows how the national championship game ended up getting boat raced by Georgia. But I mean they did beat Michigan in the playoffs and that was the biggest shock to me because they controlled that game against Michigan. They scored at will, they scored 51 points in that game and then they scored seven against Georgia.
Speaker 2:Smell you. Georgia was out of there.
Speaker 1:That game was over in the first three minutes.
Speaker 2:And everybody knew it. All right, change the channel. I do agree with you. I don't think that one was really the wrong selection. They lost one game up until that point. Yeah, they went undefeated. You win all your games. You lose in the conference championship. I think they got that one right.
Speaker 1:Look, listen to this resume. Went beat number 18 Oklahoma. Number 19 Kansas. Number 8 Oklahoma State. Number 17 Kansas State. Number 18 Texas. Lose the Big 12 championship game. Okay, but then they beat number two michigan amen I mean that's, that's a good resume now again. Most deserving, best team. I'm okay.
Speaker 2:They go in there and they beat michigan look, bama fans gonna come looking for you because I don't disagree, I that resume is very good, it's very, very good. But they were heated, that fan base was upset, but the committee got it correct, they got it correct.
Speaker 1:Alabama fan base was upset with Taylor DeBoer for wearing a t-shirt at Vanderbilt. They're going to be upset.
Speaker 2:Look the amount of Alabama fans that wanted him to dress like Saban. I'm like man. Saban got them stiff. Khakis on shirt, all tucked in. He looked uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:He picked up his golf polos at the draft.
Speaker 2:Now the following season. This is the good one right here. I got to hear this the committee decides to put in Alabama. Alabama wins the SEC and they put in Alabama over a undefeated Florida State team.
Speaker 1:I thought the committee had balls. I didn't think they would do that. Alabama was the best team. I was not going to be surprised at all if they put Florida State in. Florida State, rightfully, had earned a spot in the playoffs. They would have gotten boat race by anybody. They would have played. Michigan would have beat them by 60. Heck. Georgia beat them by 60 different circumstances in their bowl game but that was just not the same Florida State team after injury. But I just didn't think that was the balliest committee to date. And again it seems like Alabama kind of breaks the committee and we go to 12 teams after that right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But Alabama was playing really good football. On paper it was the better team matchup-wise. I just they did the right thing. People hate it, but you got to put the four best teams in. I know again deserving best. Alabama was a better team than Florida State. You can look at that product they put on the field and say I hate that argument. Same thing with this year with Alabama playing Michigan in the whatever that bowl game was Relia Quest Bowl. You can't be like see Alabama didn't get in. I mean, it's just a different matchup, a different game. When you're not playing for a national championship and you're just going down there on vacation oh and, by the way, we're going to play a football game you're not playing for a national championship and you're just going down there on vacation oh and, by the way, we're gonna play a football game.
Speaker 2:I hear you, I hear you. I just look. For me it's simple if alabama goes undefeated and lose their starter and second string and still wins with their third string, they're getting in like. I felt like florida state got shafted on that one. It's very hard. To win.
Speaker 1:With your backup quarterback it's even more difficult to win with your third string quarterback say what yeah, I said, let alone your third string, yeah exactly, let alone your third string.
Speaker 2:And they did that. I'm not. I don't think you should punish, and yes, I'm going to say punish because that's what the dude from the committee said.
Speaker 1:Let's punish me.
Speaker 2:They don't have that starting quarterback. They ain't the same team so they couldn't get in. So you're going to punish the whole team because one dude unfortunately got hurt. It's a win-loss business.
Speaker 1:It's unfortunate, and I think too it's it's unfortunate and I think I think too it's a different. It's different to win the acc than to win the sec with one loss. I think that played a big part in in it. And again, at the end of the year, who's playing the best football? I mean we. We can look at this year's and I'm sure we're about to get to it. We can look at this year's football season and nobody had notre dame and ohio state playing the best football going in, going into the postseason, and those are the two teams that rose to the top. So you got to play your best football at the end of the year. And florida state was reeling and alabama was. They went in and knocked off georgia, trying to win their third straight national championship, having lost a game at the end of the season. So that's a really big win on paper.
Speaker 2:That's a good point. That's a good point, I'm with that. I just for me power of our team goals undefeated. They got to get in. They got to get in. Was Bama playing their best ball at that time? Yeah, they were, I give them that. But Florida State was undefeated. Let's move towards that best versus most deserving. And if you're the committee when it comes down to best and most deserving, which way are you leaning?
Speaker 1:Well, when I'm the committee, I do what I've done every single year and I've just, for lack of better terms, moved the goalposts to fit whatever criteria that they could make that narrative work. They've done it every single year. They did it with a candidate who was in TCU and the two teams decided they were going to share a conference championship. They left them both out and said, hey, well, you know, we want a conference champion. Well, the next year they said, oh well, you got to be the best team. And then this year they said well, you got to have a starting quarterback. The committee's going to do whatever they want to do to make their argument that they're narrative, which is fine. That's human bias, right. If you're going to make a decision, you're going to have a reason for a decision, but it goes back to 2014. Hey, the BCS was. You know we can get mad, but they were usually pretty. The BCS was pretty good in formulating best teams.
Speaker 2:Okay. So the committee claims they have a criteria. This is how they define how they make their selections. They rank the teams based on the members' evaluation of the team's performance on the field, using conference championships. Won strength of schedule, head-to-head results and comparison of results against common opponents to decide among teams that are comparable. That's how they rank teams. Now I just read that to you and it's still kind of hard for me to figure out what the criteria is. I get the head-to-head, I get the strength of schedule part, like using conference championships. If one team won the SEC, one team wins the SEC. You're going to give it to the SEC, I guess based on the level of competition. It's a better brand.
Speaker 1:It's a better brand.
Speaker 2:Oh, so it's money, got it, got it.
Speaker 1:Well, no, the SEC is a better conference, it's a more you and the SEC, you're a. You should be a better team than the team that wins the ACC. Case in point, the number two SEC, the team that lost in the SEC championship, beat the ACC champion.
Speaker 2:Okay, because, like I ain't going to lie, there are times where I'm like is the SEC really the best, or is it just the machine telling us they're the best? They are with ESPN. Now. What does ESPN call themselves the worldwide leader? Okay, so they can push certain narratives and be like, well, this team should be here and this team should be there.
Speaker 1:I mean, look, we talked about this before. Preseason ranking. All that's made for is TV rating.
Speaker 2:We're going gonna jump into that. But before we do that, I hope you guys enjoyed that first segment and if you haven't had a chance, go ahead and hit that like button. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button and a 5 star review Will sure help a brother out. Remember, shows will drop every tuesday and follow me on socials at the third down conversation. Now let's continue the show and jump into segment number two, number two All right, peeps. So welcome back to the show. So, my man T, before we went to break, you mentioned no preseason rankings. You don't want to do none of the well, all that AP top 25 preseason stuff, like you don't want none of that.
Speaker 1:It just don't make sense to me anymore, even like even more so now with with the transfer portal and the nil, and teams are just so completely different from year to year. I mean, look at like again, florida state was ranked what top 10 going in the year and it goes and gets, gets beat by georgia tech and that turns out not even be a good win, like so I mean it.
Speaker 1:It's just a tv thing to me, like hey, you know we're featuring, you know top 10 teams. Week one we got georgia and clinton. Well, we don't, we don't know what that's gonna be. I can see clinton losing six games again yeah, that's a good point. It's just, I don't know. It seems like a TV thing to me at this point. That's a good point.
Speaker 2:You know the winter storm that just came through down there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They said that it snowed more than Florida State won games. Stop, stop, leave Florida State out of that I was like man, that was low. But you're right, especially when you bring up the transfer report and all that stuff and NIL. We don't know what these teams are going to look like. We don't have a clue. Even before that we still really don't know. Everybody's hyping up arch manning like he, the next best thing he gonna be. You know he gonna come in, he gonna kill it the heisman favorite for 2025, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:I have I haven't seen anything that's been like man, that guy, he's gonna win the heisman. I haven't seen anything that I'm gonna spend well-earned money on to say he's going to win it.
Speaker 2:I agree. I agree Because I'm like what if he comes in and he's a dud, or if he's just average, we don't know? Now there's speculation, I get his last name. I understand that. I understand what his NIL value is too. But look, dj Ungerle, I can't say that last name. But that dude at florida state, his, his nil was big too, and we saw what happened I ain't gonna try to pronounce this.
Speaker 1:I'm terrible at that.
Speaker 2:Don't ask me about tsc's quarterback yeah, but and I should be more sensitive because my name is a little weird, so but look, it ain't that bad all them syllables, but anyway. So do you think it should be more like an NFL thing where it's just like we don't have any rankings, it's just this team playing this team?
Speaker 1:I mean, at this point ESPN pretty much owns college football. I guess Fox has got Big Noon Saturday where everybody who's awake by then can watch a football game. But just do power rankings, ESPN's power rankings big noon Saturday, where everybody who's awake can watch a football game. Just do. Power rankings ESPN's power rankings. Can you put that up on your presentation?
Speaker 2:I have no clue it's your broadcast. I have no clue. Why big noon? Why do they best games come on at 11 o'clock in the morning? That is so crazy, it's too early.
Speaker 1:Like why I'm surprised they didn't play the dang Ohio State-Tennessee game at 11 o'clock in the morning for the playoffs Big noon kickoff.
Speaker 2:Get out of here, man.
Speaker 1:It's Saturday. We're trying to get a round of golf in first.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's true. That's true, but I think you're right. Like you could use the power rankings um instead of ranking, what some? Well, look, I don't like the ap, I don't. I don't think the voters actually watch the games. I think they just look at the box score.
Speaker 1:I mean, I can do that hey, it's like you mentioned in your last segment. You let the voters determine people's worth and team's worth, and these are I don't know. I don't want to. I'm not going to bash them.
Speaker 2:I'll do it.
Speaker 1:And they study their work.
Speaker 2:I'll do it.
Speaker 1:Again, all you need is power, right? Just say, hey, these were good teams last year, we think they'll be good teams. And after week four you can figure it out. Because then we get to the end of the year and like, oh, they beat number 10, florida State. Use that as an example. Oh, they got a top 10 win. No, they don't. Florida State won one game. What about a top 10 wins? No, they don't. It's hard to say one-on-one game, what about a top 10 team? So they use that criteria at the end of the year to bolster their point when it's really a move point.
Speaker 2:Currently, the playoff committee will rank teams after week eight. Is that too late? Should they do it sooner? Because let's just say, me and you right now we're going to fix the current system. The first thing we're going to do no preseason rankings. When will we rank the teams? When will we give them actual rankings, Like after what week?
Speaker 1:I would say week five, because what would you guess? The first five weeks every team can have maybe one bye game. So we've got four games in there as a case study. Is that fair to say? I? Would say so Five week, week five, let's throw out our first top 25.
Speaker 2:I like that idea. Like you said, they have a month, would have played, you know, know, hopefully some decent competition, and then you can kind of just go from there. This is how we rank them. So yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1:I like that after a month, I can tell you. I can tell you who's bad after a month.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I might not be able to tell you the top, the top teams, but I can tell you who's bad yeah, we kind of man we run another floor say a couple times, but you knew florida state was bad, after probably week two he was like yeah, they, they're not very good so how would you go about ranking the teams? What elements would you use?
Speaker 1:I would want to see, I would like, I'd like to see a, you know, a diverse non-conference schedule where a SEC team played a Big Ten team or an ACC team played an SEC. I'd like to see a non-conference game in there to see how a team performed, I would assume in the first five weeks they were. You know, our top teams would obviously be undefeated, right.
Speaker 2:Hopefully ideally.
Speaker 1:Who are playing the best football through five weeks. This is subject to change, but this is who we think the best 25 teams are through five weeks. Just loosely guessing.
Speaker 2:Okay, what if we did something like this? You're familiar with soccer. You play FIFA, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You've done.
Speaker 1:Poorly, but yeah. You've done like a season before no, I've just drank and played it with some buddies we appreciate transparency on the show yeah so when you like.
Speaker 2:I'm one of those. When it comes to sports games, I like to do the dynasties or whatever you want to call it, the franchise. The season when I play FIFA, I've played like a season and during the season, if you win, you get X amount of points. If you lose, you get X amount of points. If it's a draw, you get X amount of points. If it's a draw, you get X amount of points. And this reminded me of the way college basketball is when it comes to, like a quad one win, a quad two win. So what if college football did something similar where, if you, let's say, you beat a team and that team ends up winning like, like, let's say, eight games, that means that's a quad one win for you. Yeah, if you beat a team and they won six games, it's a quad three win and you allocate points and it's a sliding scale like in college basketball. So it can change.
Speaker 1:Does that sound too confusing? It doesn't. I would hate to again. There would have to be some strength to schedule factor in there, because why wouldn't you play a North Dakota State that's going to win 13 games in the FCS or a team that's gonna have a soft schedule like a two lane right, maybe a tough team to play, but if you beat them they're gonna win 10 games, and you know. So. I'd like to see some man. If there was only a formula out there that factor all this stuff in that we used to use, I can't think of it oh, oh, I think I got it the BCS.
Speaker 1:The BCS formula.
Speaker 2:Look, you're one of the few people I know. That's like bringing back the BCS. Why would you bring it back? I?
Speaker 1:don't mind having a committee. I don't mind having a committee. I think the BCS gives us a framework for teams deciding the best 12 teams and that's what we want to get down to at the end of the year. The BCS was never like wrong. They have all these factors, all these human polls built in, all these computer polls. You know we might disagree about a team or two, but that's what the committee's for. Let's have a BCS, provide 12 teams, 12 best teams, and then have the committee then decide all right, who, what, which seat are you? The human committee can say, hey, let's put that team into number one, the number one team, let's take out all these. Oh, you win your conference championship, you get an automatic buy so no automatic buys for conference champs.
Speaker 1:I don't want it. I don't want it. Your four best teams should get an automatic buy. I was a big Boise State fan really pulling for them, but they didn't deserve a buy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was not good. They did not deserve a buy. Arizona State didn't either, but that's just my opinion.
Speaker 1:They didn't. But man, that was a heck of a game.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I think you're on to something. I had this whole formula over here and as I'm looking at this formula, it's confusing me and I made it Like, if we go back to the BCS just to give us the best 12 and then the committee ranks them, not a bad idea at all.
Speaker 1:Then it just takes out all these moving goalposts the term I used earlier, the moving goalposts changing what standard we're going to use. The committee has had a hard job, the committee, their only thing. After every year, we always talk about the fifth team. What about the 13th team, in this case Alabama? This year, why are we talking about the 13th team and the 15th? If we go to 2014, are we going to talk about the 2015 getting left out? Yep, where does it end?
Speaker 2:It doesn't. It doesn't, man? Somebody's always going to feel slighted.
Speaker 1:You can't argue with a computer, you can try.
Speaker 2:Especially if it's got AI on it. That thing is always right Like come on.
Speaker 1:I'm sure ChatGPT's got some built-in formula to give me the 12 best teams. You're not getting paid for, chatgpt, are you? You don't have them on the bankroll yet.
Speaker 2:Man. Look, hey, chatgpt, come on, holler at me when I would think about you know the bcs, and when I've heard you say that now and others why we go back to do something. We all hate it, but I haven't heard anyone put that sort of spin on like you just did.
Speaker 1:So you got my wheels spinning a little bit like hmm, maybe that's a good idea see, I think that people hated two teams giving the play and they wanted to open up the dance to four teams and then they realized man, four teams is awesome and they went to 12 teams. I don't think people really hated the bcs, I think they just hated that it was just two teams. They felt like a lot of other good teams got left out. They could have a chance to win a national championship.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like Auburn in 2004.
Speaker 1:21 years ago, Jeez hey man Never forget, okay, jason. Campbell.
Speaker 2:Jason Campbell, ronnie Brown.
Speaker 1:Cadillac, that wasn't Aroma Shadu, was it? Aroma Shadu was on the team Team's good man, that's a fun name to say Aroma Shadu, that's a fun name to say A Roma should do yeah, I can say that.
Speaker 2:But I can't say DJ, I can't say Uncle A.
Speaker 1:I can't say that one. I can say Roma should do though.
Speaker 2:Do you feel the committee got it right this year?
Speaker 1:I think they did. And again, we're only talking about did SMU deserve the DM? We're not talking about anybody else, are we? You're right, we're only talking about SMU deserve to be in. We're not talking about anybody else, are we?
Speaker 2:You're right, we all don't talk about.
Speaker 1:SMU. We're talking about the 12th best team here. I think they did. Now everybody's going to say Penn State by racing, okay fine, alabama did not deserve to be in that game. They didn't. If they did, they should have went in to Norman Oklahoma and beat Oklahoma, the bottom feeder in the SEC this year. He should have.
Speaker 2:Facts.
Speaker 1:That's a bad loss.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:The Vanderbilt game was a little bit more of a better loss, for lack of better terms, Because I mean that was just a big game for Vanderbilt and Alabama was in a trap game after beating Georgia. Right, yeah, I can. That was just a big game, for Vanderbilt and Alabama was in a trap game after beating Georgia.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:I can forgive that loss, but losing at Oklahoma the way they did and just looking terrible on offense, you couldn't convince me that that was one of the best 12 teams.
Speaker 2:I agree with you I mean look, going to Vandy after beating Georgia which everybody thought Georgia was going to beat them you win and dramatic fashion turns out. Then you go to Vandy and look, it's Vandy, I mean we're not taking the ACT.
Speaker 2:We should be able to just go in here and do our thing. Now. Pavia, I need him to leave. Look he causing all kinds of problems. Man, new Mexico, what, yeah, new Mexico State? Then he comes to Vandy and does the same thing. That guy needs to get out of there. Man, go graduate dude, like come on.
Speaker 1:Dog. I watched Pavia in the Birmingham Bowl. He's a baller. I don't know how Vandy's keeping him. Somebody should have thrown a bag at him, like Carson Beck in Miami.
Speaker 2:My boy jumped in, had a no contact tag, miami's like yeah, come on. But hey, usually you go where the girls are, so that's where the girls are at.
Speaker 1:They probably back-channeled through the Cavender Twins, you know they did, you know they did.
Speaker 2:They had to back-channeled through the Cavender Twins. You know they did, you know they did. They had to back-channel. Smart move though.
Speaker 1:NCAA doesn't have any power on that.
Speaker 2:Man the. Ncaa lost their power when players started getting paid. It's been downhill ever since then and players should get paid. Don't get me wrong, but since that happened, it's been downhill.
Speaker 1:The cat didn't go back into the bag right. Ncaa can't do anything now.
Speaker 2:Man, look it's getting so bad. People are suing Pavia to get an extra year. Okay.
Speaker 1:Where does it end, though? Where does it like he's suing an extra year? I mean me and you played Division III ball. Do we get to go have four more years?
Speaker 2:I've thought about suing them. We can make money, then yeah, I thought about suing them so I can go back, Because I'm like look, everybody's handing a bag out. Look, I just want a couple thousand. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:Yeah, like a little sweet tea commercial or something.
Speaker 2:I don't think it ends, man, I don't think it ends.
Speaker 1:I think it ends. I think it ends when the SEC and the Big Ten take their ball and go home and start their own league.
Speaker 2:You believe that's on the way, because I do.
Speaker 1:I do, I really do. I can't see any scenario right now where these conferences aren't grabbing big brands like Florida State and Clemson, and maybe Arizona State and USC already got grabbed up, but getting Arizona State out of the Big 12. I just can't see a scenario where these conferences aren't talking and saying look, we can make more money and do this on our own and make a Super League.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Is Nick Saban your commissioner, if that happens?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2:If you guys are enjoying the show, please remember to like, subscribe and follow. If there's a certain topic you want me to talk about, drop it in the comments. If there's a certain topic you want me to talk about, drop it in the comments. Remember, this podcast can be found on all podcast platforms, as well as Twitter, instagram and YouTube, at the Third Down Conversation. Now let's finish the show, alright. So to close out the show, I'm going to ask you a few questions. You ready? Alright, many, many people believe this, but, or at least speculate this or want to say it. Do the refs help the Chiefs win?
Speaker 1:No no. You've got seven officials on the field, two people in replay, and again, Kansas city is not even like the biggest market in the NFL. Like, why wouldn't the refs help a bigger like a New York market? Right? Like, so you'd have to have nine people every game and these crews rotate, right, You'd have to have so many people that would be involved in this quote-unquote cover-up.
Speaker 1:There's no way you keep that a secret and these officials are doing like. I feel like every year we talk about one play from the whole playoffs in the NFL. It could have went either way. I mean, I feel like you're already kind of referring to the spot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bill's chiefs game. I've watched it, you know, a thousand times and I can't tell you if that ball for a hundred percent sure got over the first day on Mark. But what I can tell you is the official at the bottom of the screen comes in stopping the clock like he's short. He tells me for sure he knows he's short and I mean that's all I want from an official is a confident judgment. And he's confidently coming in, stopping the clock, saying turn over on downs. Whether he ruled first down or shorted the line of game replay was not. That's too tight for replay to stay indisputable at video evidence. So no, I don't think the refs help. I think Patrick Mahomes is really good at flopping. Anytime he gets touched he folds up like a cheap chair and makes it look bad like a yard sale. But other than that I think the Chiefs are a really good team and they get the benefit of some 50-50 calls.
Speaker 2:Patrick Mahomes should be in the NBA playing soccer, because the dude does flop very well.
Speaker 1:Playing next to LeBron. Those are the two goats, the flop goats.
Speaker 2:To your point. While it does appear that the Chiefs get a flag at critical moments, that particular play, the dude at the bottom came in like nah, he's short. The guy at the top was like I think he got it and then he's marking it as a first down. Then he kind of slides to the left and make him short.
Speaker 1:And the thing about the guy at the top is he never gives you any signal. He doesn't give a dead ball hand up in the air signal saying, hey, I've got him here. There was no conflicted signals on that play. And I say conflicted signals like, uh, what was the seahawks packers game with the, with the, uh, with the refs, where one gave a, a touch back and one gave a touchdown? But there wasn't any like confliction of signals there. Right, one guy had the spot, the other guy just didn't know, which is fine there's. There's points in games where you're just not gonna know I'm with that.
Speaker 2:I'm with that, all right. So number two kendrick or drake? This is not a trick question oh, it is a trick question.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I you know huge drake fan three years but lately kindred. Is this thing coming on? Oh, wow right now, right now, right today. If they battled it out, today I'm going kindred, but all time I gotta go with with uh, with drake man, look at you don't body of work. Body of work. Body of work don't don't most deserving can be the best team right now that's good tie that into the point of the show right best team, most deserving right on topic.
Speaker 2:Man, right on topic, all right. Who in college football has the best conference?
Speaker 1:Right now.
Speaker 2:Right now. Right now Today.
Speaker 1:Bless man. It's tough because this NIL landscape is just so crazy. I think the SEC has a bigger brand, but right now the Big Ten's got better. You're better top tier teams like Ohio State, penn State and Michigan. I just think, like recency bias, they've been your best team. I mean, I still think the SEC has got a bigger, like Auburn, alabama, tennessee, georgia, lsu, like those are just big names that are always going to be good.
Speaker 2:Right now I'm going to say Big Ten, just given the last couple years man, it's the Big Ten and I'm an SEC guy through and through, but it's the Big Ten and it's simply because they've won the last two national championships yeah, you can't ignore that.
Speaker 2:And Ohio State's spending a lot of money right now 20 million but also like if it, when the SEC did that, all you heard was we the best, we the best, we the best. I ain't going to move the goalposts like the crowd. I ain't moving the goalposts like the committee. I ain't doing it.
Speaker 1:Got to back it up. Tennessee lost to Ohio State. I mean, we had another SEC team in there, right.
Speaker 2:Texas Georgia. Oh yeah, texas lost to Ohio State. I mean, we had another SEC team in there, right, Texas Georgia.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, texas lost to Ohio State and Georgia. Well, georgia lost to Notre Dame.
Speaker 2:How did Georgia lose to Notre Dame? How do you lose to Notre Dame? Come on, GA.
Speaker 1:Backup quarterback. It's hard to win with your backup quarterback. Thank you, let alone the third string.
Speaker 2:Exactly what I'm saying you see exactly what I'm saying. You see, shout out Florida State man yeah, alright, that's my answer is Taylor Swift bad for the NFL?
Speaker 1:she might not be bad for the NFL but God bless, she's bad for me. I can't stand her. She's bad for me. I see her, my blood boils. I'm sure the NFL likes see her and my blood boils. Actually, the NFL likes having her and her fan base kind of, you know, intermingling with their sport, so I don't think she's bad for the NFL. I know a lot of people hate her. I saw an Eagles shirt this week that had some choice words with Taylor Swift on it but had the Eagles logo in some places. That covered it up.
Speaker 2:So I know some people that are going to hate on her To all my Swifties. My guy T's opinion about her is not a reflection of what I think about her. Okay, so I just want to put that out there.
Speaker 1:I'm a hater though. I'm a hater, at least you're honest about her, okay. So I just want to put that out there. I'm a hater, though I'm a hater.
Speaker 2:At least you're honest. The only thing that I'll say about taylor swift in the nfl is it seems like she's taking travis kelsey's swagger away like he just doesn't seem to be that like like he's lost his swag.
Speaker 1:I don't know. He got him too straight laced right right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah man, he's a wild man out there. Come on.
Speaker 1:Travis. He's almost like a family man now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, that's my only thing.
Speaker 1:He still goes crazy in the playoffs All right last question when Mahomes gets three seconds on a play action, he's going to find Kelsey.
Speaker 2:And he's always open. I'm like nobody's guarding that guy. He's big, he's big.
Speaker 1:Boxing him out Turn him.
Speaker 2:It's him right there, that guy 87. He's the best guy on the floor. I mean the field. All right. Last question who?
Speaker 1:you got winning the Super Bowl. I got the Eagles, the Eagles all the way. I think that's my heart more than anything, wanting the Eagles to win. I don't want to see the Chiefs win another one. I really like Shaquan on the team, devontae Smith, aj Brown, jalen, go Jalen and their defense, the Eagles' defense, is really good. I think they're going to play well.
Speaker 2:Fly, Eagles, fly. I'm with you on that one. I'm with you on that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think their defense is going to shut out I'm not going to say shut out Mahomes, I think their defense is going to pressure Mahomes and get to them a lot, and I think the defense is the MVP of the game, the whole defense. We'll see how that statement ages. If it sounds stupid a week from now, just go ahead and edit it out, right, man no.
Speaker 2:Fly. You can fly, baby. We in there, we in there T. Thank you for joining the show and if you like the show, please remember to like, subscribe and drop a comment. Leave a review. This has been the Third Down Conversation. I am D Turnipsy. Jesus loves you and I'm out Peace.
