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CFP Committee Chair Explains 4-Team Debate in Latest Top 25 Rankings · Bleacher Report

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  Speaker 1: Right now joining us The College Football Committee Chairman Hunter
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  Speaker 1: Yurchik kind enough to join us now on the show.
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  Speaker 2: Hunter, we appreciate the time tonight. How you doing.
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  Speaker 3: I'm doing fine, Mike.
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  Speaker 2: How are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well.
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  Speaker 1: We know it's been a busy night for you and
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the committee, so we appreciate you giving.
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  Speaker 2: Us some time.
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  Speaker 1: And I guess the easiest place to start is the
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  Speaker 1: move that happened this week.
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  Speaker 2: Now. I heard you talk about on with.
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  Speaker 1: Rehees Daves, Notre Dame and Alabama as fierce abate as
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  Speaker 1: you guys have had in the last couple of years
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  Speaker 1: in terms of Alabama jumping back over the top of them.
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  Speaker 1: I guess I want to ask looking the other way,
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  Speaker 1: because Notre Dame Miami has been such a topic of conversation.
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  Speaker 1: How close was that debate in the room this time around?
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  Speaker 1: Separated by only one team?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, really the debate centered around those four teams, Alabama,
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  Speaker 3: Notre Dame, BYU, and Miami. You've got three two loss
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  Speaker 3: teams in there that the Committee has a great deal
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  Speaker 3: of respect for. You've got a BYU team, a one
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  Speaker 3: loss team that the Committee has great respect for So
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  Speaker 3: you're really trying to figure out those four teams because
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  Speaker 3: that's really the cut line that you're looking at, that
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  Speaker 3: nine through twelve.
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  Speaker 2: That's a key line.
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  Speaker 3: Demarcation for a lack of a better cliche. And so
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  Speaker 3: you know what we did. Notre Dame and Alabama has
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  Speaker 3: been hotly debated for three straight weeks now, and I
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  Speaker 3: think the committee this week felt like Notre Dame took
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  Speaker 3: care of business and a lesson hostile environment out at
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  Speaker 3: Stanford did what they should have done. But Alabama went
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  Speaker 3: on the road and a rivalry gain in sec place
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  Speaker 3: has proven to be very hard play for teams like
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  Speaker 3: Georgia this year and Vanboo this year that are in
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  Speaker 3: our top twenty five and found a way to get
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  Speaker 3: a win. I look good in the first half, getting
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  Speaker 3: up by seventeen points. Quarterback played well, had three passing touchdowns.
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  Speaker 3: They ran the ball well. I think had over one
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  Speaker 3: hundred and fifty yards rushing, got punched in the mouth
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  Speaker 3: in the third and fourth quarter. Auburn came back and
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  Speaker 3: tied the game. Alabama made a huge call going forward
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  Speaker 3: on fourth to take the lead and then got the
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  Speaker 3: key turnover late in the fourth quarter. I think the
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  Speaker 3: committee thought and what they saw in Alabama and that
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  Speaker 3: game was enough to put them just a notch ahead
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  Speaker 3: of Notre Dame this week and move them up from
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  Speaker 3: ten to nine.
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  Speaker 1: So that hotly debated Notre Dame on Miami considered in
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  Speaker 1: the same pod. But even with that to head matchup here,
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  Speaker 1: the committee still maintains basically as it's the same view
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  Speaker 1: that you guys have had on Notre Dame in Miami
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  Speaker 1: this whole time. Or did the pit win this last
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  Speaker 1: weekend change Miami station in that conversation at all.
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  Speaker 3: You know, Miami entered our poll the of losers of
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  Speaker 3: two of three games, and so they entered at eighteen,
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  Speaker 3: and so they have climbed very quickly on the heels
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  Speaker 3: of four really impressive wins, including what they did against
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  Speaker 3: Pittsburgh this past weekend, to number twelve. Notre Dame, on
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  Speaker 3: the other hand, has been incredibly consistent over the past
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  Speaker 3: ten weeks. They've won ten consecutive games. They're out scoring
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  Speaker 3: their opponents four hundred and to one forty three. During
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  Speaker 3: that same time period. They get some explosive plays from
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  Speaker 3: their run game, explosive plays from the past game, and
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  Speaker 3: we felt like they're they're just the better team right now.
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  Speaker 3: And then you got a BYU team again that the
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  Speaker 3: committee's got a great deal of respect eleven and one.
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  Speaker 3: They're only lost on the road at number four Texas Tech.
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  Speaker 3: Their schedule strength and record strength metrics are really really high.
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  Speaker 3: And then so you're looking at those teams collectively together
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  Speaker 3: and you're sitting hairs. But the committee felt like at
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  Speaker 3: this point in time in a ranking, that Notre Dame
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  Speaker 3: deserved to be ranked ahead of both BYU and Miami,
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  Speaker 3: and that BYU deserve to be ranked ahead of Miami.
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  Speaker 3: And that's the way it fell this week with Alabama
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  Speaker 3: at nine, Notre Dame ten, BYU at eleven, and Miami
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  Speaker 3: at twelfth.
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  Speaker 1: Now we know going into Conference champions weekend, Notre Dame
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  Speaker 1: on Miami are not going to play. You're gonna have
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  Speaker 1: BYU facing off against Texas Tech for the second time.
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  Speaker 1: You're gonna have Alabama that spot against ahead of Notre
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  Speaker 1: Dame playing as George the SEC title game. How is
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  Speaker 1: the committee instructed to view teams that lose on conference
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  Speaker 1: title weekend playing when no one else is playing.
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  Speaker 3: The Selection Committee is charged by the Management Committee to
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  Speaker 3: evaluate the championship games is another data point. The management
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  Speaker 3: Committee is made up of the conference commissioners that run
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  Speaker 3: the conference championship games. If they weren't important, we would
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  Speaker 3: have our final ranking tonight and it would be it,
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  Speaker 3: and we wouldn't even use the conference championship games as
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  Speaker 3: at a point.
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  Speaker 2: But we have one more.
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  Speaker 3: Ranking that will happen Saturday night and to the early
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  Speaker 3: morning hours on Sunday, and it will include the data
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  Speaker 3: points that are the ten conference championship games. Will re
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  Speaker 3: rank the teams one through twenty five based on the
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  Speaker 3: data that we have from those games.
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  Speaker 1: Got it, And so I guess the simpler question would
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  Speaker 1: be can a loss punish you on Conference championship weekend?
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  Speaker 2: Can you drop with a loss in one of these games?
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  Speaker 3: Without knowing what the loss looks like? It's hard for
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  Speaker 3: me to sit here today and predict if loss could
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  Speaker 3: move you down or for a win could move you up.
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  Speaker 3: I think it just depends on what that game looks
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  Speaker 3: like and who it's played by.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so the quality of the game or the I
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  Speaker 1: guess margin of that game would then factor into how
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  Speaker 1: you guys view that win or loss.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, again, it's going to be how we view games
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  Speaker 3: every week, wins and losses, and how teams play. It
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  Speaker 3: will be another data point and you know, if you're
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  Speaker 3: an idle teammate, get the benefit of schedule strength metric
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  Speaker 3: or record strength metric improving because of what happened in
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  Speaker 3: the conference championship game.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, certainly possibility to keep an eye on. Another interesting
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  Speaker 1: situation this week was Ole Miss in the playoff field
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  Speaker 1: still but we know Lane Kiffen, their head coach, moved
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  Speaker 1: on and took the job with LSU. We saw news
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  Speaker 1: that Charlie weis junior going to be back calling the
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  Speaker 1: plays for them if they are indeed in that final
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  Speaker 1: playoff field, which it looks like they're going to be. Now,
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  Speaker 1: how much were those factors, the volatility and the changes
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  Speaker 1: of the coaching staff around that team factor the way
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  Speaker 1: you guys analyze this team.
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  Speaker 3: They weren't factored in how we analyze those teams. But
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  Speaker 3: we did have a discussion as a committee because it
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  Speaker 3: is one of the principles in our protocol, the availability
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  Speaker 3: of coaches and players and the impact on their respective teams.
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  Speaker 3: And so not only did we talk about what's going
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  Speaker 3: on at Old Miss, but we also talked about Oregon
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  Speaker 3: and their offensive coordinator taken another job at Kentucky or
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  Speaker 3: Texas head coach, the James Madison head coach, the Tulane
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  Speaker 3: head coach, and even though the coaches are going to
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  Speaker 3: coach in their respective championship games and if there's games
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  Speaker 3: after that, but what is the impact on the team.
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  Speaker 3: And the answer to the question is, we don't know
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  Speaker 3: because we have not seen any of those teams play
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  Speaker 3: a game like an Old Miss without their head coach
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  Speaker 3: or Oregon, whether distracted potentially offensive coordinator or distracted head
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  Speaker 3: coaches at other schools. And so we had a discussion
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  Speaker 3: because it is one of the principles. But the answer
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  Speaker 3: to the question is, unlike a few years ago where
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  Speaker 3: Florida State when they lost quarterback with a couple of
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  Speaker 3: games left in the season, the committee at the time
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  Speaker 3: had some games to watch Floristate play without their starting quarterback.
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  Speaker 3: We don't have the value of that in the case
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  Speaker 3: of Old Miss or any of the other schools that
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  Speaker 3: are undergoing coaching changes.
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  Speaker 1: Got it all right, So a lack of data there
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  Speaker 1: means Old Miss actually moves up a spot over Texas
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  Speaker 1: A and m how robust with that debate around the
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  Speaker 1: Texas A and M team obviously coming off their first
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  Speaker 1: loss of the season against Texas getting jumped by an
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  Speaker 1: Ole Miss team where the resume points in some cases
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  Speaker 1: would say they still favorite Texas A and M.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you look at that grouping of now the
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  Speaker 3: five one loss team starting with Georgia, Texas Tech, Oregon,
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  Speaker 3: Old Miss, and Texas A and M. Five really good teams,
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  Speaker 3: five teams that have some really good metrics and pressive wins.
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  Speaker 3: And I think what it came down to, especially when
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  Speaker 3: you specifically asked about the Old Miss in Texas AM debate,
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  Speaker 3: we feel like Old Miss is a little bit better
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  Speaker 3: offensively than Texas A and M. Old Miss also has
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  Speaker 3: two twenty five wins. Of course, Texas A and M
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  Speaker 3: has their win versus Notre Day, but we felt in
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  Speaker 3: the end that Miss is just a little bit better
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  Speaker 3: team and deserve to be ranked the head of Texas
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  Speaker 3: A and M this week.
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  Speaker 2: Understandable.
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  Speaker 1: All right, well, hunter, we appreciate all your time with
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  Speaker 1: This has been a busy night for you. I guess
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  Speaker 1: you know, if I could throw one more scenario in
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  Speaker 1: front of you, we talked a lot about it.
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  Speaker 2: Notre name in Miami.
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  Speaker 1: They're separated by a spot going in this final weekend.
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  Speaker 1: Is there a world where the Canes could still jump
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  Speaker 1: notre at a at this point based on everything that
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  Speaker 1: we've seen, even though they're not playing Mike.
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  Speaker 3: We will re rank the teams on late Saturday night
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  Speaker 3: and early Sunday morning and see what happens.
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  Speaker 2: That sounds like a good answer to me. Hunter. Thank
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  Speaker 2: you so much for the time. Enjoy this weekend.
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  Speaker 1: I know you guys all get to watch the game
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  Speaker 1: together in a very well catered room that my father's
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  Speaker 1: extremely jealous of, So I hope you enjoy whatever the
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  Speaker 1: spread is in there, and I hope you enjoy all
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  Speaker 1: the games this weekend. We appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you much.
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  Speaker 3: Appreciate you very much.