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The 5 Biggest Big Ten Non-Conference Games Of 2025 · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyees tomorrow morning for Wednesday, May fourteenth. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Or the Texas game in one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and eight days, the game against Michigan in one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and ninety nine days. If you're planning a next event,
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  Speaker 1: make it unforgettable with Grateful Griddle, Columbus's favorite fruit truck,
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  Speaker 1: serving up smashburger, scoremet sandwiches and good vibes. Book you're
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  Speaker 1: catering today at gratefulgriddleoh dot com. On today's show, we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna be looking at the five biggest non conference games
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  Speaker 1: involving Big Ten teams this year. Now we're gonna have
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of a surprise. Is this really an
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  Speaker 1: upset alert? Make game at the end for you? So
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  Speaker 1: you'll you'll get a chance to hear about that a
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  Speaker 1: little bit later on. But we're talking about all this
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  Speaker 1: with our buddy Tony Gerderman, a Fuckeyhuddle dot Com. Tony,
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  Speaker 1: I think, well, we're just gonna run through this sequentially
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  Speaker 1: through the season rather than ranking this and upsetting someone
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  Speaker 1: because I have the wrong thing as the number three
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  Speaker 1: biggest game in the Big Ten. But of the five
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  Speaker 1: games that I had listed as the biggest, the biggest
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  Speaker 1: clearly Number one game is Week one. It is Texas,
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  Speaker 1: it is Ohio State, It is going to be on Fox.
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  Speaker 1: We're almost positive it's going to be at new and
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  Speaker 1: they haven't officially officially said that yet, but it sure
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  Speaker 1: sounds like it's going to be at noon. But the
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  Speaker 1: Cotton Bowl rematch, potential top three, top two match up
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  Speaker 1: between those two teams pretty unquestionably to me, the biggest
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  Speaker 1: game in the Big Ten non conference this year.
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  Speaker 2: A game is so big that it could only be
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  Speaker 2: held at noon. As some would say, You're talking about
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  Speaker 2: two of the biggest names in college football, and Arch
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  Speaker 2: Manning and Jeremiah Smith, one of which one of whom
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  Speaker 2: has lived, you know, has done something and produce some
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  Speaker 2: numbers to earn that recognition. But whoever wins this game
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  Speaker 2: walks out as the favorite nationally and the favorite in
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  Speaker 2: the Heisman Race. And so there's a lot going on
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  Speaker 2: in this one, and I think everybody's looking forward to it. It
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  Speaker 2: would be nice if you could look forward to it
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  Speaker 2: all day long and really build up to it instead
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  Speaker 2: of waking up and getting ready for it immediately. But again,
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  Speaker 2: create the environment that you want because this is going
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  Speaker 2: to be a big game, and yeah, it's number one, Tom.
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  Speaker 2: I think you can put this number one sequentially alphabetically
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  Speaker 2: in rank of importance, however you want.
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  Speaker 1: To do it, as long as you start with Austin,
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  Speaker 1: Texas at Columbus, Ohio. Yes, you can do it alphabetically
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  Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, pretty clearly. Number one. Next one, Week two,
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  Speaker 1: another game involving a traditional big ten power and a
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  Speaker 1: traditional big twelve power now playing in the SEC. Tony.
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  Speaker 1: It's the game so big that a head coach is
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  Speaker 1: trying to tailor his suspension around getting to coach in
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  Speaker 1: this one. Michigan at Oklahoma. Week two.
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  Speaker 2: You get two programs that are both trying to return
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  Speaker 2: to the playoffs, return to like real relevance, and so
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  Speaker 2: you don't want to start off with the loss. And
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  Speaker 2: there's going to be all kinds of things circling with
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  Speaker 2: this game, whether it's the Vultures in Oklahoma or the
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  Speaker 2: NCAA with Michigan and neither one of these, which is well,
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  Speaker 2: I want to lose this one. And you know, Sharan Moore,
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  Speaker 2: going back home to Oklahoma where he played Brent Ventnable
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  Speaker 2: is trying to gain some footing in his career. So
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  Speaker 2: I think we're all looking forward to this one. It'll
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  Speaker 2: be a fun one. And by when was the last time?
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  Speaker 2: This the first time these two teams have ever played?
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  Speaker 2: This is not a rivalry fight. Well, the tom while
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  Speaker 2: I am vamping, you go to Winsipedia really quickly and
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  Speaker 2: let us know how many times the Oklahoma Sooners of Norman, Oklahoma,
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  Speaker 2: I've played the Michigan Wolverines of and Arbor, Michigan one time.
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  Speaker 1: One time in nineteen seventy six. It was in the
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  Speaker 1: Orange Bowl. It was one of those years when right
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  Speaker 1: when the Big Ten allowed you to play in play
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  Speaker 1: in a game other than the Rose Bowl. It was
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  Speaker 1: a second place Michigan team going to play, going to
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  Speaker 1: play Oklahoma, and they lost fourteen to six. And Tony,
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  Speaker 1: speaking of games where no one scores twenty points, I'm
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  Speaker 1: just going to read you. I'm going to give you
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  Speaker 1: one fun fat and then read you the scores of
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  Speaker 1: the last six matchups in the series, and you're going
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  Speaker 1: to tell me which the next one is. Okay, in
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  Speaker 1: the last six games, no one has broken thirty points
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  Speaker 1: in this series. And I already had a Winsipedia tab
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  Speaker 1: pulled up on this one. Tony scores of the last
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  Speaker 1: six games in this series going from twenty eighteen to
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  Speaker 1: the present, thirteen to three, eighteen to seventeen, twenty seven
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  Speaker 1: to seven, ten to seven, twenty to thirteen, and twenty
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  Speaker 1: to nineteen. Tony name that Big ten non conference series.
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  Speaker 2: Is that Iowa State?
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  Speaker 1: Tom It sure is, Tony it is. I have a
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  Speaker 1: long history of calling the Egg Bowl between Ole Miss
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  Speaker 1: and Mississippi State college football stupidest rivalry, But man, man,
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  Speaker 1: Iowa Iowa State is right up there. I have actually
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  Speaker 1: attended this game once in my life. The two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and seven game in Ames that was Tony, a game
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  Speaker 1: that was fifteen to thirteen was the final score. Iowa
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  Speaker 1: State won the game, scoring zero touchdowns on the day
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  Speaker 1: and kicked five field goals with a a field goal
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  Speaker 1: kicker who looked like Shaggy from Scooby Doo and whose
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  Speaker 1: nickname was Shaggy because he looked so much like Shaggy
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  Speaker 1: from Scooby Doo. So yes, so that's really the Iowa
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  Speaker 1: Iowa State rivalry in a nutshell. But man, this is
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  Speaker 1: one of those games that this could potentially be a
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  Speaker 1: consequential game for the college football Playoff because Iowa State
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  Speaker 1: has gotten kind of sneaky close to the playoff a
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  Speaker 1: couple times recently, and Iowa was not completely out of
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  Speaker 1: it last year as well. This is one that you know,
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  Speaker 1: everyone kind of loves to laugh at this series, but
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  Speaker 1: also this could be like a little bit of a
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  Speaker 1: data point that the College Football Playoff Committee is talking.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good. I think this is going to be
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  Speaker 2: a Quadrant one win for somebody, Like it's going to
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  Speaker 2: be like a legit win for somebody, because I think
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  Speaker 2: you're talking about two decent teams and it's been a
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  Speaker 2: while since Iowa State is one in aims I think
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  Speaker 2: twenty eleven or so, and they've they've won two of three,
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  Speaker 2: but those have been in Iowa City and so they're
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  Speaker 2: kind of due. But also it's more than it's a
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  Speaker 2: huge rivalry game. But like I said, the importance nationally
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  Speaker 2: tom this could be the biggest most important game between
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  Speaker 2: these two teams since two thousand and two, which was
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  Speaker 2: won by Iowa State.
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  Speaker 1: As we all remember that was yeah, and that was
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  Speaker 1: the only thing that kept Iowa and brad Banks out
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  Speaker 1: of the National Championship game, potentially because that was before
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  Speaker 1: the Big Ten championship game that was the year. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State and Iowa both went undefeated in the Big
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  Speaker 1: Ten and Iowa was Iowa's only lost I believe that
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  Speaker 1: season was to Iowa State. So yeah, that was a
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  Speaker 1: really really big game that potentially helped swing the swing
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  Speaker 1: the national championship. The matchup between Ohio State and Miami
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  Speaker 1: that year. So next up, a really historic rivalry. This
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  Speaker 1: is Oh sorry did I skip one? Sorry I skipped one.
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  Speaker 1: Next up, not a historic rivalry was Consin at Alabama
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  Speaker 1: Week three. This is a man, I was really excited
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  Speaker 1: to be excited about this game, and I still look
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  Speaker 1: at Wisconsin and kind of go, this might not go great.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this one is interesting to me because this is
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  Speaker 2: can Wisconsin put up a fight? Can they stand up
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  Speaker 2: and you know, stick with They stuck with Alabama the
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  Speaker 2: last time, which I think was twenty twenty four according
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  Speaker 2: to the Internet. But yeah, it was close until it
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  Speaker 2: was a forty two to ten final and just everything collapsed.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's one of the questions about the
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  Speaker 2: Wisconsin program now is not just can you hang on,
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  Speaker 2: but can you not collapse? And really they need to
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  Speaker 2: start answering some of these questions better than they have been,
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  Speaker 2: So I think it's interesting. I don't know how long
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  Speaker 2: it's going to remain interesting, though, because right now I
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  Speaker 2: don't have a lot of faith in Wisconsin, even though
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  Speaker 2: I know Ohio State better not overlook them when they
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  Speaker 2: go there.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was You know, this is a team,
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  Speaker 1: that Wisconsint team that's not going to be great this year,
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  Speaker 1: but could sneak up on someone. And the fact that
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  Speaker 1: we've talked about three Big Ten SEC games already here,
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  Speaker 1: it feels like, boy, if the Big Ten goes zero
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  Speaker 1: to three or three and oh in those those are
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  Speaker 1: going to be used as talking points throughout a lot
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  Speaker 1: of those college football playoff sort of shows and conversations
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  Speaker 1: later in the season, where if Ohio State and Michigan
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  Speaker 1: and Wisconsin can somehow sweep those SEC teams that make
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  Speaker 1: that's going to be one very very strong talking point.
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  Speaker 1: And if Texas and Oklahoma and Alabama can sweep those,
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  Speaker 1: that's gonna be a very different kind of talking point.
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  Speaker 1: And right now, the Big Ten kind of has a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of a leg up on the SEC. They've
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  Speaker 1: won the last couple of national championships. They also have
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  Speaker 1: won a lot I think virtually all of the head
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  Speaker 1: to head matchups between those two schools in the College
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  Speaker 1: Football Playoff, and I think they won the They won at
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  Speaker 1: least the whatever the Outback Bowl is now. Michigan beat
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  Speaker 1: Alabama last year, and I think they lost the Citrus
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  Speaker 1: Bowl last year. These are all very consequential games, Tony,
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  Speaker 1: but they mean something if they agree with the point
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  Speaker 1: that I'm trying to make.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think things turned when everybody was allowed to
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  Speaker 2: pay players? Is that what I'm hearing from you, Tom? Once,
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  Speaker 2: once this thing was allowed to happen everywhere, then suddenly
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  Speaker 2: a particular conference lost their upper hand.
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  Speaker 1: Is that what you're saying to me, Tom, Tony, I
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  Speaker 1: would never say that out loud. Next up, speaking of
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, speaking speaking of football, Tony, We're going
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  Speaker 1: to fast forward all the way to week eight. This
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  Speaker 1: is a USC at Notre Dame year, which means the
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  Speaker 1: cowards from southern California can't come up to the Upper
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  Speaker 1: Midwest late at the end of the season. When it's
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  Speaker 1: in Notre Dame. At USC it's always Thanksgiving weekend. When
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  Speaker 1: it's USC at Notre Dame, it's always middle of the season.
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  Speaker 1: It is week eight this year. This is the Notre
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  Speaker 1: Dame team that's got you know, they replay seeing a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of guys. There's gonna be a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a step back from last year. Boy, this is a
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  Speaker 1: game Lincoln Riley really needs to win this year. Lincoln
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  Speaker 1: rarely probably needs to show a little bit of ROI.
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  Speaker 1: They have picked it up on the recruiting trail to
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  Speaker 1: a certain degree recently, but man, you're gonna have to
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  Speaker 1: see some results. This is probably you know, this is
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  Speaker 1: one where if USC wins, it certainly bolsters their case
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  Speaker 1: to make the playoff. I'm not sure they're going to
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  Speaker 1: get there either way, but Notre Dame does not have
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  Speaker 1: a particularly loaded schedule this year, so this is going
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  Speaker 1: to be one that this is a potentially very big
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  Speaker 1: win for Notre Dame's playoff chances.
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  Speaker 2: You mentioned they recruiting. USC has twenty eight commits right
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  Speaker 2: now in the twenty twenty six class, on their way
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  Speaker 2: to one hundred and six or so. But yeah, this
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  Speaker 2: is always it's one of the more fun rivalries because
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  Speaker 2: on one hand, these two teams, these two programs and
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  Speaker 2: their fans really care about it, and so it's kind
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  Speaker 2: of like, you know, you nugg you on the head,
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  Speaker 2: all you guys with your nice little rival. You know,
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  Speaker 2: it's so so fun for you. Good job that you
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  Speaker 2: guys have this. But on the other hand, it's when
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  Speaker 2: do you see, like a couple of years ago, Notre
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  Speaker 2: Dames beating the heck out of Caleb Williams when that
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't have happened. Where you see some of these inexplicable
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  Speaker 2: games at the choke job or the bush push, like,
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  Speaker 2: there is a lot Admittedly, there's a lot of history
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  Speaker 2: and a lot of fun between these two programs and
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  Speaker 2: we've seen some great games, and I love when both
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  Speaker 2: programs are in it. And I think USC is trending well,
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  Speaker 2: but maybe that's because they're not on the field. And
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  Speaker 2: so we'll see if they can continue. If these trends continue,
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  Speaker 2: tom we'll see what happens.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, the USC fans putting up two? Is it V
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  Speaker 1: for victory? No, it is two for too soon to
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  Speaker 1: tell how this USC team will do this year. Notre Dame.
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  Speaker 1: The rest of their schedule I mentioned it. They start
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  Speaker 1: at Miami and then they have week two off, and
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  Speaker 1: then week three they play Texas A and M And
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  Speaker 1: so you're going, boy, this is a murderer's row. And
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  Speaker 1: then the rest of the schedule was Purdue at Arkansas,
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  Speaker 1: Boise State, NC State, USC at Boston College, Navy at
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  Speaker 1: Pitt Syracuse, and at Stanford. So the road trips are
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  Speaker 1: at Stanford, at Pitt, at Boston College, at Arkansas, and
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  Speaker 1: at Miami. So it's fine, but it's not not incredible.
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  Speaker 1: I mentioned off the top of the show. Okay, that's
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  Speaker 1: your five. Here's one that I think is a little sneaky.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna go back to Week one, Tony Montana State
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  Speaker 1: at Oregon. We watched some of the we watched some
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  Speaker 1: of Oregon's non conference games last year, and they were
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of a slow starter last year, and
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  Speaker 1: they had some offensive line stuff they had to get
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  Speaker 1: sort of sorted out. But they did not beat Idaho
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  Speaker 1: by a whole lot last year, and Idaho lost thirty
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  Speaker 1: eight to seven to Montana State. Last year. Montana State
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  Speaker 1: ended up going fifteen and one lost in the FCS
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  Speaker 1: championship game. I'm just I'm not saying I'm just saying,
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  Speaker 1: keep an eye, you know, monitor this space, because if
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  Speaker 1: this is a slow start to the season for Oregon
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  Speaker 1: as they had last year, where they just they didn't
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  Speaker 1: look right for the first couple of weeks. This is
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  Speaker 1: not a team you want to have on your schedule
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  Speaker 1: week one. You know, Montana State's replacing a bunch of guys.
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  Speaker 1: They have a new offensive coordinator. I think they've got
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  Speaker 1: a new quarterback. They've you know, they had a very
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  Speaker 1: very good veteran team last year, and you're kind of
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  Speaker 1: replacing some guys. But they kept their head coach. They
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  Speaker 1: didn't lose a ton of guys in the portal. This
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  Speaker 1: just feels This feels like one where Dan Lanning's talking
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  Speaker 1: to his ad and going, what are you doing to me?
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Why would you do this? You get no credit for it,
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  Speaker 1: and there's potentially some real downside.
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  Speaker 2: Now Tom's not saying but if it happens, he's going
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  Speaker 2: to tell you.
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  Speaker 1: So that's oh absolutely in that case, I was in
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  Speaker 1: fact saying yes, so.
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  Speaker 2: Tom, if you would also like to just say it
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  Speaker 2: that way, you don't have to listen.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to use the word guaranteed.
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  Speaker 2: However, you know, will they be caught looking ahead to
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  Speaker 2: Oklahoma State? Probably not, you know, but you wouldn't need
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  Speaker 2: to because again, this is it's a season opener. But
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  Speaker 2: are are they going Are the Ducks going to be
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  Speaker 2: up for it as much as they should because you
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  Speaker 2: mentioned that game last year and they were fortunate to
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  Speaker 2: get out of there with that win, and they're fortunate
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  Speaker 2: the week after that to get out of there with
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  Speaker 2: the win against Boise State. So you know, slow starts
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  Speaker 2: aren't necessarily anything new for Oregon unless they're playing in Columbus.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they That's just that that's one of those things
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  Speaker 1: where you really, I'm sure this seemed like a great
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  Speaker 1: idea at the time, but it's like all those teams
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  Speaker 1: that scheduled in North Dakota State non conference and then
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  Speaker 1: it's like, you get no credit for winning this game,
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  Speaker 1: and if you lose, then you lost to an FCS team.
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  Speaker 1: If you are there, are you know there are people
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  Speaker 1: that will do like FCS upset drafts. I would keep
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  Speaker 1: an eye on that one for you know, you're not
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  Speaker 1: they're not going to be a favorite. It would be
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  Speaker 1: an upset they're probably I mean haven't looked and that
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  Speaker 1: does not seem like game that's gonna have an early
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  Speaker 1: line out. But man, if that's a ten fourteen point line,
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  Speaker 1: that wouldn't be surprising where it's like, yeah, that's closer
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  Speaker 1: than you'd probably think for a you know, last year's
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  Speaker 1: number one versus an FCS team, because the gap is
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  Speaker 1: not as big as you might think. There. So there
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  Speaker 1: you go the five plus one biggest games non conference
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  Speaker 1: games for the Big Ten. This year going to be
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  Speaker 1: a really really interesting season as they sort of get
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  Speaker 1: all that stuff sorted out. This is maybe the last
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  Speaker 1: year those non conference games are going to really really
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  Speaker 1: matter in a way that they might not if that
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  Speaker 1: all ties in much more to conference records in the future.
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  Speaker 1: They're still sort of sorting that stuff out, but this
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  Speaker 1: season should be a really really entertaining one, and it
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  Speaker 1: all starts, as we mentioned, with that Texas game just
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and eight days away. We will be there
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  Speaker 1: covering that one. We will be there cover in Fall camp.
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  Speaker 1: Before that, we'll be there covering Big Ten media. Days
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: before that, we will be there covering the June camp season.
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  Speaker 1: Before that, we will be there for all of that
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  Speaker 1: for you at Bucky Huddle dot com and YouTube dot
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  Speaker 1: com slash Bucky Huddle. That'll do it for today. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.