Latest / The Next Round / The Next Round: Chris Low: Alabama-Tennessee Showdown, LSU vs. SEC & Florida State's $430M Debt | Hour 2
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Top of the hour, hour two on the next round
- 0:03Speaker 1: presented by Hard Rock Bet on Sporting State. We're about
- 0:05Speaker 1: to talk to the great Chris Lowe. If you are
- 0:08Speaker 1: a gamer that plays, I'm not even a gamer. I
- 0:12Speaker 1: played two games and I played one of them majority
- 0:15Speaker 1: of my life. It's always been EA college football. And
- 0:19Speaker 1: once it went away, I kept the old one and
- 0:21Speaker 1: kept playing the old one. The new one came back
- 0:24Speaker 1: and I, in 2025, I said, I'm going to buy
- 0:26Speaker 1: the new one and I'm not going to buy it
- 0:27Speaker 1: ever again. And I got a new one in 26
- 0:30Speaker 1: and a new one in 27. I get one every year.
- 0:32Speaker 1: Man of your word right there.
- 0:33Speaker 2: This year's may have been the last one. Okay. You've
- 0:36Speaker 2: said that every year. No, it may be going away again. Oh, really? Yeah.
- 0:39Speaker 1: It turns out they paid $ 7 million to all the
- 0:43Speaker 1: players in 2025. That has gone up to $ 20 million to.
- 0:48Speaker 2: The players in 2027.
- 0:49Speaker 1: And EA Sports says if it keeps going up, we
- 0:53Speaker 1: don't know if we can continue to pay that much
- 0:55Speaker 1: to the players to keep using them in the game.
- 0:57Speaker 3: They can't.
- 0:58Speaker 2: Well, I'm with Tyler. This feels like a negotiation ploy.
- 1:00Speaker 4: EA Sports is notorious for peddling microtransactions across all their games,
- 1:06Speaker 4: getting you to spend $ 10, $ 20, $ 100 at a time
- 1:09Speaker 4: on coins.
- 1:10Speaker 5: You think about the profit margin, how much it's going
- 1:12Speaker 5: to go down having to pay out that.
- 1:14Speaker 2: Kind of money. Yeah, that'll go down. But I mean,
- 1:16Speaker 2: it does feel like a negotiation ploy to say, all right.
- 1:20Speaker 2: Here's what we'd like to do with a future players union.
- 1:23Speaker 2: Let's just agree to a flat rate here. Let's don't
- 1:25Speaker 2: do this every year. Just work this into whatever we're doing. Yeah,
- 1:27Speaker 2: let's just work this in.
- 1:28Speaker 1: A lot of moving parts going on in the middle
- 1:30Speaker 1: of the season in college football. Let's talk some game
- 1:32Speaker 1: on the field with Chris Lowe. Yeah, Chris Lowe on three.
- 1:35Speaker 1: He's been coming on with us for years. You guys
- 1:36Speaker 1: love him.
- 1:37Speaker 2: We do too. Welcome in, Chris. How are you today,
- 1:39Speaker 2: my friend?
- 1:40Speaker 6: I'm doing great. It's good to be with you, gentlemen.
- 1:42Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good to be with you. You're a guy
- 1:43Speaker 2: that grew up in the deep south, spent some time
- 1:46Speaker 2: in the state of Tennessee. So when you see the
- 1:48Speaker 2: third Saturday in October roll around, You know the importance
- 1:52Speaker 2: of this day, even if Alabama kind of dominated it
- 1:55Speaker 2: in the Saban years. It's gotten back more even. But
- 1:58Speaker 2: when you see the third Saturday in October on the calendar,
- 2:01Speaker 2: you still get a special feel, don't you?
- 2:03Speaker 6: Yeah, and I tell you what, it's going to be
- 2:04Speaker 6: really cool to see the Crimson jerseys and the Orange
- 2:07Speaker 6: jerseys in this game. Takes us back to the 70s.
- 2:10Speaker 6: But no, it's probably one of those robberies that's a
- 2:13Speaker 6: little bit underappreciated, in part because over the last two decades,
- 2:17Speaker 6: Alabama has dominated, but with streaky defense. in the eighties
- 2:21Speaker 6: and nineties. But, uh, I think when you talk to
- 2:23Speaker 6: Bama fans and Tennessee fans, they will tell you how
- 2:27Speaker 6: much this robbery means. I remember Nick saying that the
- 2:30Speaker 6: players on his team when he was there probably were
- 2:34Speaker 6: more pumped for this game than they were any game.
- 2:36Speaker 6: And I think it's probably, uh, that's the case, you know,
- 2:39Speaker 6: both sides of the fence.
- 2:40Speaker 5: Now, Chris, the good news is Tennessee is 14th nationally.
- 2:44Speaker 5: They've only got the one loss. But I don't think
- 2:47Speaker 5: that Josh Eipel at this point wanted to have multiple
- 2:49Speaker 5: starting quarterbacks. You know, is it Faison Brandon? Is it
- 2:53Speaker 5: George McIntyre? Moving forward, do you think they get this
- 2:56Speaker 5: thing figured out? Or do you think it's going to
- 2:58Speaker 5: be back and forth all year?
- 3:01Speaker 6: Well, I would say in this game, you'll probably see
- 3:04Speaker 6: both quarterbacks. No, I don't think any coach wants to
- 3:06Speaker 6: play two. And I don't think that was the plan
- 3:09Speaker 6: coming in, but Brandon hurt his shoulder against Texas. He
- 3:12Speaker 6: wasn't a hundred percent and really hadn't played well. I mean,
- 3:15Speaker 6: he had not played against great teams. And I think
- 3:18Speaker 6: some of what we saw in those first few games
- 3:20Speaker 6: was a little bit of fool's goal because they just
- 3:22Speaker 6: didn't play any really good defenses until Texas. And he
- 3:26Speaker 6: got beat to death, didn't see the field great. And
- 3:28Speaker 6: they went with McIntyre the next couple of games. He's
- 3:31Speaker 6: won both of those games. I would think my sense
- 3:35Speaker 6: is that he will start this game, but, I think
- 3:38Speaker 6: probably they're going to need the run game from the
- 3:40Speaker 6: quarterback to have any chance against this Alabama front. And
- 3:43Speaker 6: so you probably see Brandon at some point. As far
- 3:47Speaker 6: as him figuring it out, I think you've got to
- 3:49Speaker 6: go week to week. And they did what they needed
- 3:51Speaker 6: to do the last few weeks to win the game,
- 3:53Speaker 6: which was play McIntyre. He pushed the ball down the
- 3:56Speaker 6: field a little bit more, which Tennessee had not been
- 3:58Speaker 6: able to do under Brandon. But to me, the bigger
- 4:02Speaker 6: story is very simply, can Tennessee protect whoever's in there
- 4:08Speaker 6: and run it just enough to keep that Alabama defense honest.
- 4:11Speaker 6: Because to this point, Bama's defense has been really pretty nasty.
- 4:15Speaker 6: And Tennessee has not faced, even Texas, with Colin Simmons,
- 4:19Speaker 6: who just wreaked havoc in that game. I don't know
- 4:21Speaker 6: that they've faced a defense across the board as good
- 4:25Speaker 6: as this Alabama defense.
- 4:27Speaker 1: When I first started in this business, Tony Barnhart was
- 4:29Speaker 1: a guy, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that I always went to for
- 4:33Speaker 1: perspective on the SEC. And out of all respect, it
- 4:37Speaker 1: is you now as you've worked for ESPN and now
- 4:41Speaker 1: on three. So I only ask you this in the
- 4:43Speaker 1: middle of the season because you have great history and
- 4:46Speaker 1: are able to put the SEC into perspective for me.
- 4:50Speaker 1: When you tweeted last night, LSU is going to be
- 4:52Speaker 1: in the SEC's doghouse forever. I know some of that's
- 4:55Speaker 1: tongue in cheek, but this legal battle for those of
- 4:58Speaker 1: us that aren't, you know, pre-law or anything. How serious
- 5:03Speaker 1: can this still get for LSU, and do you think
- 5:05Speaker 1: people are really pissed off in the SEC offices?
- 5:08Speaker 6: That would be a yes. Hey, and not only in
- 5:14Speaker 6: the SEC offices, the presidents and chancellors around the league
- 5:17Speaker 6: are still pretty miffed at the way this has all
- 5:19Speaker 6: gone down. None of us knew, guys, that we needed
- 5:22Speaker 6: to go to law school to cover sports. We were
- 5:25Speaker 6: in school, didn't we? But it's sort of morphed into that. No, yeah,
- 5:28Speaker 6: they are, and I've talked to a lot of chancellors
- 5:30Speaker 6: and presidents and ADs, And they feel like that, fair
- 5:34Speaker 6: or unfair, that LSU sort of thumbed their nose up
- 5:37Speaker 6: at some of the things that the SEC has wanted
- 5:40Speaker 6: to do. And, yeah, I mean, I don't know where
- 5:43Speaker 6: this ends. I don't know what the endgame is. And
- 5:45Speaker 6: if you look at it from both perspectives, I get
- 5:47Speaker 6: LSU's side. I get where the SEC's coming from. But
- 5:50Speaker 6: more than anything, if you want to look at it
- 5:52Speaker 6: just through the SEC lens, they feel like they need
- 5:56Speaker 6: to put their foot down and say, listen, we are
- 5:58Speaker 6: going to enforce– what our rules are in the sec.
- 6:01Speaker 6: And if it comes to threatening to kick LSU out
- 6:04Speaker 6: of the league, which I never thought was going to happen.
- 6:06Speaker 6: And it's not going to happen. That, that is not
- 6:08Speaker 6: going to happen, but will there be punishment? Will there
- 6:10Speaker 6: be penalties? I think there's still a chance of that.
- 6:13Speaker 6: And I think that's sort of where we are right
- 6:15Speaker 6: now with this. And, um, You know, listen, Lane Kiffin
- 6:18Speaker 6: has been one of those guys since I've known him
- 6:20Speaker 6: going on two decades. You guys were around him a
- 6:23Speaker 6: ton when he was at Bama. He's always going to
- 6:25Speaker 6: push the envelope. And I think that's part of what
- 6:28Speaker 6: makes him effective is he's not afraid to bite back.
- 6:31Speaker 6: He's not afraid to sort of color outside the lines.
- 6:34Speaker 6: And he's been given carte blanche at LSU with the
- 6:37Speaker 6: support there, the president, the governor, the AD to do that.
- 6:41Speaker 6: And that's sort of where we are right now. I
- 6:43Speaker 6: don't know. Again, I, I don't know where this ends,
- 6:46Speaker 6: but yes, I'm rambling a little bit, but to answer
- 6:49Speaker 6: your question, yeah, there's a lot of pissed-off people in
- 6:51Speaker 6: and around the SEC.
- 6:53Speaker 5: And a result of that, another 11 a.m. game in
- 6:55Speaker 5: Baton Rouge this weekend with Mississippi State coming to town. Look,
- 7:01Speaker 5: you're as well-sourced as anybody in the SEC. Kamario Taylor
- 7:04Speaker 5: is not going to play in this game, from what
- 7:06Speaker 5: I've heard. I don't know what you've heard. I've heard
- 7:08Speaker 5: there's potentially a medical procedure that has already gone down.
- 7:12Speaker 5: What is the latest, at least on your end, for
- 7:14Speaker 5: Kamario Taylor and who will start actually for Jeff Levy
- 7:17Speaker 5: on Saturday morning?
- 7:19Speaker 6: Yeah, I'll start with what I know. He's got a
- 7:21Speaker 6: really bad case of turf toe, and that's an injury,
- 7:24Speaker 6: as you guys know, that's a really difficult injury to navigate,
- 7:28Speaker 6: certainly if you're a skilled player and you have to
- 7:30Speaker 6: move around, which he does. If you watch him against Alabama,
- 7:33Speaker 6: he played flat-footed. in that game, much of the game.
- 7:37Speaker 6: And I give him credit. He's a tough kid, man,
- 7:39Speaker 6: and wanted to play and get his best. He was
- 7:41Speaker 6: not what he's been throughout this season at that point.
- 7:45Speaker 6: Turf toe is one of those injuries. You really, you
- 7:48Speaker 6: got to rest it. You got to stay off of it.
- 7:50Speaker 6: And no, I think it's going to be pretty difficult
- 7:52Speaker 6: for him to play. Will he try to play? I
- 7:54Speaker 6: don't know. If I had to, if I were a
- 7:56Speaker 6: guessing man, I would say, no, he probably doesn't play.
- 7:59Speaker 6: Or if he does play, he's going to be limited
- 8:01Speaker 6: because the last thing you want to do if you're
- 8:03Speaker 6: Mississippi state, is to put him out there, rush him
- 8:06Speaker 6: out there when he's not ready. And this thing can
- 8:08Speaker 6: become an injury where, as you just said, it's all
- 8:11Speaker 6: your fault. And I know that Jeff Levy has enough
- 8:15Speaker 6: confidence in his football team that he doesn't want to
- 8:17Speaker 6: put his team into a predicament where they don't have
- 8:20Speaker 6: their best player for the bulk of the season.
- 8:23Speaker 2: Chris Lowe is with us on 3 Sports. You can
- 8:25Speaker 2: follow him at CLowFB, CLowFB, and see his work at On3.
- 8:29Speaker 3: Com.
- 8:30Speaker 2: Texas A & M' s got a layup game against Charlotte
- 8:32Speaker 2: this week, but Mike Elko kind of put himself in
- 8:34Speaker 2: the fire with the criticism of Billy Lucci's operation there.
- 8:38Speaker 2: Elko seems immensely likable, Chris. He seems like a likable guy.
- 8:42Speaker 2: I don't know that the fan base is just looking
- 8:44Speaker 2: to dislike the guy, but... You've done this long enough
- 8:48Speaker 2: to know, man, when you start criticizing your own fan base,
- 8:50Speaker 2: whether it's an off-the-cuff remark or calling them a cesspool,
- 8:56Speaker 2: that can be hard to come back from. Where do
- 8:58Speaker 2: you think he is right now with Texas A & M?
- 9:01Speaker 6: Yeah, there's never any reward to go after your face.
- 9:04Speaker 6: I don't think Mike really meant– I don't want to
- 9:06Speaker 6: speak for him, but I know Mike pretty well, and
- 9:08Speaker 6: he's a really smart, cerebral guy. I don't think he
- 9:12Speaker 6: meant it. maybe the way it came out, but he
- 9:15Speaker 6: still said it. And you're right. It's hard to walk
- 9:18Speaker 6: that back when you mentioned cesspool and maybe the most
- 9:22Speaker 6: influential team website in college football, what Billy's built there
- 9:27Speaker 6: with Texags, and a website that has a financial stake
- 9:31Speaker 6: there with Texas A & M. Frustration probably more than anything.
- 9:35Speaker 6: He has apologized. But, hey, when you play poorly and
- 9:40Speaker 6: you lose and you're not playing– Up to your talent level,
- 9:43Speaker 6: you're talking about a roster that's 40, 45 million, one
- 9:46Speaker 6: of the top paid rosters in all the college football.
- 9:50Speaker 6: And you come out and you say something like that,
- 9:53Speaker 6: regardless of what you meant or didn't mean. Yeah, it's
- 9:58Speaker 6: one of those things that's a scar and a scab
- 10:02Speaker 6: that is going to remain for a while. Mike is
- 10:06Speaker 6: a good enough football coach where he understands that all
- 10:09Speaker 6: that matters is that team playing better and coaching better
- 10:13Speaker 6: and playing, as I said, to their talent level. They've
- 10:16Speaker 6: not come close to doing that. I watched them practice
- 10:18Speaker 6: back in spring when I was there. I can't wait thinking, hey,
- 10:21Speaker 6: this is a deep football team. It's a team that
- 10:24Speaker 6: I think will be physical and tough. That's his mentality.
- 10:28Speaker 6: And so much of it, so much of the frustration
- 10:31Speaker 6: has been directed at Marcel Reed, the quarterback. He hasn't
- 10:34Speaker 6: played well, but guess what? They hadn't played great around
- 10:36Speaker 6: him and they've given up a lot of points on defense.
- 10:39Speaker 6: So I think there's a lot of blame to go around.
- 10:42Speaker 6: We'll see how they climb out of this or if
- 10:44Speaker 6: they can climb out of it in the second half
- 10:46Speaker 6: of the season. But at this point, there's no question
- 10:49Speaker 6: they've been the most disappointing team in the league.
- 10:51Speaker 1: Does Eli Drinkwitz get enough respect, Chris, for what he
- 10:54Speaker 1: does at Missouri? And I don't know the challenges they have,
- 10:58Speaker 1: but as an old SEC guy, that seems more challenging
- 11:02Speaker 1: than some places. Does he get enough respect in this league?
- 11:05Speaker 6: Probably not because his consistency at a place that's not
- 11:09Speaker 6: considered to be a blue blood or an upper tier
- 11:12Speaker 6: school in the league. When it comes to football, he's
- 11:14Speaker 6: been really, really consistent. And what he hasn't done is
- 11:18Speaker 6: he hasn't consistently beaten the best teams on his schedule.
- 11:22Speaker 6: And he's got a chance to change that this year.
- 11:23Speaker 6: I don't, I don't know that a lot of people
- 11:26Speaker 6: expected them to be where they are at this point.
- 11:28Speaker 6: They got some tough tests coming up. This game, I
- 11:30Speaker 6: think is fascinating this weekend with Austin Simmons and Kay,
- 11:35Speaker 6: the league going back up against their old team. So
- 11:39Speaker 6: this is a, this was a big one. I think
- 11:40Speaker 6: this is a kind of game for Missouri that really
- 11:43Speaker 6: sets them on the right trajectory. If they can win, look, no,
- 11:47Speaker 6: I listen, drink. First of all, he's refreshing to cover
- 11:50Speaker 6: because he says what's on his mind. Can you be
- 11:53Speaker 6: a little goofy? Sometimes he'll be the first one to
- 11:55Speaker 6: tell you that he is, but his football team there
- 11:58Speaker 6: and the program he's built has been probably better than
- 12:02Speaker 6: I think most people over the last four or five
- 12:04Speaker 6: years would have predicted they would be. And this was,
- 12:07Speaker 6: as I said, this is a big game for them. I,
- 12:09Speaker 6: I really like what they've done. Austin Simmons, if you
- 12:11Speaker 6: asked me back in August who are the top six, seven,
- 12:15Speaker 6: eight quarterbacks in the league, I probably would not have
- 12:16Speaker 6: listed him. Boy, I would now, the way he's shown
- 12:19Speaker 6: the football, the way they've used him. And they've also
- 12:22Speaker 6: been pretty darn good on defense.
- 12:25Speaker 2: Do you have a gauge maybe of how personal will
- 12:27Speaker 2: this be for him Saturday? Is this a grudge match
- 12:29Speaker 2: for Austin Simmons?
- 12:32Speaker 6: Well, I know they're not letting him talk to the
- 12:33Speaker 6: media this week.
- 12:34Speaker 2: There's your answer. All right, that's your answer.
- 12:36Speaker 6: Thank you. That's a pretty good indication right there, and
- 12:40Speaker 6: maybe afraid of what he might say. But, yeah, you
- 12:42Speaker 6: know it is. I mean, anybody that's a competitor, you know,
- 12:45Speaker 6: he was the guy. He was sort of the next
- 12:47Speaker 6: guy there at Ole Miss after Jackson Dart left. Started
- 12:50Speaker 6: the season, got hurt, and then this guy named Trinidad
- 12:53Speaker 6: Chambliss comes along, and the rest is history. So, I
- 12:59Speaker 6: don't think there's any question that this is one he's
- 13:01Speaker 6: probably had circled. He's looking forward to it. the tricky
- 13:05Speaker 6: part in these types of games is you don't want
- 13:07Speaker 6: to try to do too much. You don't want to
- 13:10Speaker 6: get too emotional, but you know, he's played some, he's
- 13:13Speaker 6: played a decent amount of football now and he's been around,
- 13:15Speaker 6: he's been around the league. I think this is probably,
- 13:19Speaker 6: even though drink, what did drink say something about, well,
- 13:23Speaker 6: we'll see you on the sec network. Like basically saying,
- 13:25Speaker 6: I can't believe this is not on a, you know,
- 13:27Speaker 6: in a, in a prime time slot. But this is
- 13:30Speaker 6: one of the more fascinating games to me because really
- 13:32Speaker 6: for both teams, not just Missouri, but for Ole Miss.
- 13:36Speaker 6: This is what Ole Miss, if Ole Miss is going
- 13:37Speaker 6: to be a playoff team, I don't think they can
- 13:40Speaker 6: lose this when expected to be in a playoff. And
- 13:41Speaker 6: I think the same probably goes for Missouri.
- 13:44Speaker 5: Another interesting game this week in Kentucky, now ranked, goes
- 13:47Speaker 5: to Norman. Give Oklahoma credit. I know the Red River
- 13:50Speaker 5: is very unpredictable, but coming off that bye, they did
- 13:53Speaker 5: get the win against Texas. did it with defense, did
- 13:55Speaker 5: it with special teams. They've only got two losses. I
- 13:59Speaker 5: know it's a gauntlet coming up, but the schedule a
- 14:02Speaker 5: little bit more manageable with a banged up Kamario Taylor,
- 14:06Speaker 5: inconsistent South Carolina, Florida going the other direction, A &
- 14:09Speaker 5: M not nearly as good as we thought they would be.
- 14:11Speaker 5: Do you think Oklahoma still believes they can make a
- 14:14Speaker 5: run here?
- 14:15Speaker 6: You know, they went unbeaten in November last year. They
- 14:18Speaker 6: had two losses going into November and won a lot
- 14:20Speaker 6: of big games. They beat Tennessee on the road. They
- 14:22Speaker 6: beat BAM on the road. So they've sort of been here.
- 14:25Speaker 6: We'll see if what happened last week can give them
- 14:28Speaker 6: a spark offensively, if Matera can play more consistently, if
- 14:33Speaker 6: they can be more effective. Because defensively, listen, I'm never
- 14:36Speaker 6: going to doubt Brent Venable's defense. They will always play
- 14:39Speaker 6: well enough to be in contention to win games. So
- 14:43Speaker 6: it gets back to is that sort of what Oklahoma
- 14:47Speaker 6: has offensively or what they were leading up to that
- 14:51Speaker 6: game offensively, then no. But if that can sort of
- 14:54Speaker 6: propel them on that side of the ball to play
- 14:56Speaker 6: better and be more potent, yeah, then I think they
- 14:59Speaker 6: got a shot. Listen, what we've seen to this point,
- 15:02Speaker 6: I'm sure you guys the same way, I'm not predicting
- 15:04Speaker 6: anything because that's what this league has been is unpredictable.
- 15:08Speaker 6: I felt it would be like this in August because
- 15:11Speaker 6: of the ninth game. I thought there'd be a lot
- 15:13Speaker 6: of injuries. I thought there'd be a lot of carnage
- 15:15Speaker 6: in this league, teams that probably we didn't see going
- 15:18Speaker 6: on the road, a la South Carolina going to Florida
- 15:20Speaker 6: and dominating the Gators. when everybody had Shane Beamer dead
- 15:23Speaker 6: and buried. I think there's more of that coming. There's
- 15:26Speaker 6: more teams that probably we don't think will win that
- 15:28Speaker 6: will win. And I'll go on record. I don't think
- 15:31Speaker 6: when we get through the championship game in December, there'll
- 15:34Speaker 6: be more than two games, or I should say two
- 15:37Speaker 6: teams that have fewer than two losses. Now it gets
- 15:41Speaker 6: a little dicey there come playoff selection time. Is there
- 15:43Speaker 6: going to be a three loss team that finally gets
- 15:46Speaker 6: in as an at-large team? We haven't seen that yet.
- 15:50Speaker 6: Clemson got in, a couple of years ago, but they
- 15:52Speaker 6: won the ACC. Bama got in with three last year,
- 15:55Speaker 6: but one of those losses was in the SEC championship game.
- 15:57Speaker 6: So this is a little bit of a litmus test,
- 16:00Speaker 6: I think, for the selection committee. Do they really look
- 16:04Speaker 6: at conference strength? Like supposedly, allegedly, there's that new metric
- 16:08Speaker 6: this year because there's going to be a lot of
- 16:10Speaker 6: teams in this league come December that have three or
- 16:13Speaker 6: more losses. And I think a lot of good football teams,
- 16:16Speaker 6: and we'll see how that shakes out when the committee
- 16:19Speaker 6: sits down to make their selections.
- 16:21Speaker 1: I know because of your relationship with Nick Saban and
- 16:25Speaker 1: Jimmy Sexton that you know a lot of the stuff
- 16:27Speaker 1: that is in the Saban documentary, and I assume you've
- 16:30Speaker 1: watched it already or you are watching it or will
- 16:32Speaker 1: watch it, but you lived most of it. The part
- 16:34Speaker 1: that blew me away, and I knew Nick always loved LSU,
- 16:38Speaker 1: but the fact in, I think it was episode two,
- 16:41Speaker 1: that he didn't want to leave Michigan State, and then
- 16:44Speaker 1: they had decided, he and Jimmy, that they weren't going
- 16:46Speaker 1: to leave LSU and skip Burtman. when they walked in
- 16:48Speaker 1: and Skip was basically saying, you know, see you later, Nick.
- 16:52Speaker 1: That surprised me. And is there anything in that that
- 16:55Speaker 1: has surprised you that you really didn't know or you'd
- 16:58Speaker 1: forgotten or you've enjoyed watching it?
- 17:00Speaker 6: You know, I haven't had a chance to see the
- 17:03Speaker 6: whole thing. I've seen bits and pieces. I look forward
- 17:05Speaker 6: to sitting down and watching the rest of it. No, listen,
- 17:09Speaker 6: I knew that Jimmy had to convince Nick to leave
- 17:12Speaker 6: the Big Ten to come to LSU. You know what, people–
- 17:16Speaker 6: forget even, I'm guilty of this, the 10 years before
- 17:18Speaker 6: Nick got to LSU, go back and look what their
- 17:20Speaker 6: record was.
- 17:21Speaker 1: Horrible.
- 17:21Speaker 6: They weren't very good.
- 17:22Speaker 4: No.
- 17:23Speaker 6: And he knew it would be, and talking to Nick
- 17:25Speaker 6: over the years, he knew there would be a lot
- 17:26Speaker 6: of heavy lifting there. And he went in and did
- 17:29Speaker 6: a lot of things that you see now, facilities, and
- 17:33Speaker 6: put his infrastructure there in place, really recruited that state
- 17:37Speaker 6: at a high level. And I know he was tempted,
- 17:40Speaker 6: like most of us would be, to, hey, how would
- 17:43Speaker 6: I do in the NFL? He coached in the NFL.
- 17:45Speaker 6: How would I do as a head coach? And so
- 17:47Speaker 6: took his shot. But Nick's heart has always been in
- 17:52Speaker 6: college football. Not only that, but Terry. I think Terry,
- 17:55Speaker 6: I know she did. She enjoyed the part of college football,
- 17:59Speaker 6: being his wife and certainly his closest confidant, way more
- 18:03Speaker 6: than she did the NFL. So when he left, didn't
- 18:07Speaker 6: go the way he wanted it to, and Listen, I'm
- 18:09Speaker 6: not one of those who says, hey, he was a failure.
- 18:11Speaker 6: Had he stayed at Miami, had he worked out with
- 18:14Speaker 6: Drew Brees, I think he would have won. But at
- 18:16Speaker 6: the end of the day, and having had conversations with
- 18:18Speaker 6: him about this, college football was where he wanted to be,
- 18:22Speaker 6: and certainly when he got there to Tuscaloosa, the rest
- 18:25Speaker 6: is history. But I look forward to watching the whole thing.
- 18:29Speaker 6: There's a side. My former colleague at ESPN, Ivan Maisel,
- 18:32Speaker 6: probably said, of what I've seen to this point probably
- 18:36Speaker 6: was the most profound when he said, Nick did an
- 18:39Speaker 6: incredible job of not letting most people see who he
- 18:44Speaker 6: really was as a person. And that's very true. I mean,
- 18:47Speaker 6: in the years I got to know him 20 years,
- 18:50Speaker 6: you know, I got to see that side of him
- 18:51Speaker 6: probably more than a lot of people. He had a
- 18:54Speaker 6: much better sense of humor, a much better wit than
- 18:57Speaker 6: people ever really knew, but that never got in the
- 18:59Speaker 6: way of him being just a, you know, in your face,
- 19:03Speaker 6: in your grill, never any rearview mirrors in his life.
- 19:07Speaker 6: There are zero rearview mirrors in his life. And that's
- 19:09Speaker 6: the kind of football coach he was. But I don't
- 19:12Speaker 6: know many people that I've talked to who played for him.
- 19:14Speaker 6: I'm sure there's a few who, when they were done,
- 19:19Speaker 6: did not appreciate what he did for them as a man,
- 19:22Speaker 6: as a football player, helping set them up in life.
- 19:25Speaker 6: And I think that is always, to me, the truest
- 19:27Speaker 6: gauge of what a football coach has done. I understand
- 19:30Speaker 6: that Now that he's in the media and TV, I
- 19:33Speaker 6: always kid him about that. I said, you're always a
- 19:35Speaker 6: media guy at heart, Nick. He says things and has
- 19:39Speaker 6: done things that piss people off and they feel like
- 19:42Speaker 6: he's been too much of a proponent for the Save
- 19:44Speaker 6: College Sports Act. But you know what? He he doesn't
- 19:47Speaker 6: have a dog in the fight anymore. He's going to
- 19:48Speaker 6: say what's on his mind. whether you agree with him
- 19:51Speaker 6: or don't and the other narrative i don't agree with
- 19:55Speaker 6: is he got out because he was scared of what
- 19:58Speaker 6: the sport was going to morph into he didn't like
- 20:01Speaker 6: it i know that for a fact that's just not
- 20:03Speaker 6: the way he came up but you know what nobody
- 20:05Speaker 6: in football evolved and adapted better than he did. He
- 20:09Speaker 6: would have done the same thing with this, and he'd
- 20:11Speaker 6: still be kicking everybody's ass if he was still in
- 20:13Speaker 6: the league, if he was still coaching football. There's no
- 20:16Speaker 6: doubt in my mind. Now, would he have to do
- 20:18Speaker 6: things a little bit different? Would he have to sort
- 20:20Speaker 6: of tweak and adjust? Yeah, but he's done that his
- 20:22Speaker 6: entire career, and he would have done that in Alabama, too.
- 20:25Speaker 2: He is Chris Lowe on 3, C Lowe FB on
- 20:29Speaker 2: Twitter is where you follow him. Get some great content
- 20:32Speaker 2: there all year, especially during college football. Thank you for
- 20:34Speaker 2: the time, Chris. Enjoy the games.
- 20:36Speaker 6: Well, thank you guys for having me. Have a great day.
- 20:38Speaker 2: Yeah, you too. Always good to see you. We appreciate
- 20:40Speaker 2: Chris coming on. I did not know that LSU had
- 20:43Speaker 2: such a bad relationship with the black players in Louisiana.
- 20:46Speaker 2: I didn't either.
- 20:47Speaker 5: I didn't know how shitty their facilities were.
- 20:50Speaker 2: It made Baton Rouge sound like a war-torn third-world country
- 20:54Speaker 2: when Nick Saban went there.
- 20:54Speaker 1: Especially the drive from the airport that they showed in there,
- 20:57Speaker 1: if that's the true drive from the airport.
- 20:59Speaker 2: It looked awful. And he gets there and he's like,
- 21:00Speaker 2: I don't want this job. You know what's crazy? Even
- 21:02Speaker 2: before he walks into the news conference, calls Terry, Eric,
- 21:05Speaker 2: I don't know if I want to be here. I
- 21:06Speaker 2: did not know Michael Clayton and Marcus Spears, that was
- 21:09Speaker 2: such a seminal moment for LSU Athletics, for him to
- 21:11Speaker 2: get those guys to commit to stay in Baton Rouge.
- 21:14Speaker 5: But what's ironic and crazy about the whole situation was
- 21:17Speaker 5: Kiffin's comments to Vanity Fair in the offseason.
- 21:19Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah, I thought of that, too. About Ole Miss, like,
- 21:23Speaker 2: it's tough to recruit here.
- 21:24Speaker 5: And he goes to LSU, and LSU had this division
- 21:28Speaker 5: for decades.
- 21:29Speaker 2: You had quality players that were like, I'd rather play
- 21:31Speaker 2: for Southern than LSU. That lived in the shadows of
- 21:34Speaker 2: the stadium in Baton Rouge. Right. No, we hate LSU.
- 21:39Speaker 2: If I was going to play for any school in
- 21:40Speaker 2: this town, it'd be Southern, not LSU. I mean, that's
- 21:42Speaker 2: an incredible statement. Yeah, and I'll tell you, is Skip
- 21:44Speaker 2: Burtman dead or alive? Dead. He just recently passed. He
- 21:47Speaker 2: recently passed.
- 21:48Speaker 5: But as I was about to say, they might have
- 21:49Speaker 5: taken him to his grave after that because I don't
- 21:52Speaker 5: know if Saban would have ever left.
- 21:53Speaker 2: I know.
- 21:54Speaker 5: Like, can you imagine the championships they would have won there?
- 21:57Speaker 2: I know.
- 21:57Speaker 5: Now, I don't know if we'd be doing this show.
- 21:59Speaker 5: I have no idea. Like, you know, the butterfly effect
- 22:02Speaker 5: of what all that would have, the chaos it would
- 22:04Speaker 5: have spun our existence into. But.
- 22:07Speaker 2: Skip Berman, hey, man, that's a lot of money. Go.
- 22:09Speaker 1: I can't pay him. They were offering him six. We're
- 22:12Speaker 1: only going to pay him 2.6. We can't match that.
- 22:15Speaker 2: See you, man. I mean, Nick just wanted an effort.
- 22:18Speaker 2: That's right.
- 22:19Speaker 1: He wasn't even asking for the same money. He just
- 22:21Speaker 1: wanted him to say stay.
- 22:23Speaker 5: Dude, please, please stay. You've done so much. There's so
- 22:25Speaker 5: much more you can do. Money's not everything. What can
- 22:28Speaker 5: we do for you? The dude left Michigan State over $ 100, 000.
- 22:30Speaker 5: I mean, think about it. His two college stops. One,
- 22:34Speaker 5: he left because they didn't. They weren't men of their
- 22:37Speaker 5: word on $ 100, 000. That's all it was, was $ 100, 000. And
- 22:40Speaker 5: he would have stayed at Michigan State, he says, and
- 22:43Speaker 5: then left LSU because LSU was like, yeah, can't pay you.
- 22:46Speaker 5: But why didn't Skip spend it like he spends it? Hey,
- 22:48Speaker 5: don't make a decision over the next four years. Make
- 22:51Speaker 5: a decision for your next 40.
- 22:52Speaker 1: That was my biggest takeaway was that they had sat
- 22:56Speaker 1: there and made the decision. Jimmy Sexton's like, let's go
- 22:58Speaker 1: tell them. Let's go see Skip right now and tell
- 23:00Speaker 1: them we want to stay. Was it on Christmas Eve
- 23:02Speaker 1: or it was around Christmas or something? And they walked
- 23:05Speaker 1: into Skip's office and he's like, Before they could even
- 23:07Speaker 1: say anything, it's like, man, thank you.
- 23:10Speaker 2: Hey, you can't turn that down. Take the money and run. Go, Nick.
- 23:14Speaker 1: And then Nick's like, they cut to Nick, and he's like, well,
- 23:17Speaker 1: I guess.
- 23:18Speaker 2: I'm going to Miami.
- 23:20Speaker 5: I mean, that was shocking. It's like your wife walking
- 23:23Speaker 5: in and saying, you know what? I think I'm going
- 23:25Speaker 5: to leave you, and you don't even want to battle
- 23:27Speaker 5: for whatever the other side is.
- 23:28Speaker 2: All right, man. It's been a good run. Yeah, there
- 23:32Speaker 2: you go.
- 23:33Speaker 1: All right, the show being brought to you by our
- 23:35Speaker 1: friends at Hard Rock Bet. If you want to jump on,
- 23:37Speaker 1: we've got fun tonight. We've got the Dodgers, heavy favorites,
- 23:41Speaker 1: minus 172 at home to Milwaukee, down 2-0. Otani might play,
- 23:46Speaker 1: might not play tonight. Definitely not pitching 7 o'clock FS1.
- 23:50Speaker 2: You can play.
- 23:51Speaker 5: He's playing. You think he's 100% going to play? Yeah,
- 23:54Speaker 5: I mean, him and Roberts talked. Dave Roberts had a
- 23:56Speaker 5: conversation with him yesterday. I mean, he's three of 20
- 23:58Speaker 5: in the postseason, zero extra base hits.
- 24:00Speaker 2: Taking some horrible swings.
- 24:01Speaker 5: Oh, my God. And you can tell he's in pain.
- 24:03Speaker 5: It's the neck. It's the bicep. It's the back.
- 24:06Speaker 2: I mean, it's everything.
- 24:07Speaker 5: And they had a conversation, and he said, look, this
- 24:10Speaker 5: is on you. Do you want to do this? And
- 24:11Speaker 5: he said, I can do it. I'm healthy enough to
- 24:13Speaker 5: do it. So, yeah, he'll be in the lineup.
- 24:15Speaker 1: Yeah, minus 172 favorites. Must win for the Dodgers tonight.
- 24:19Speaker 1: You can play that. Hard Rock Bet, a couple of
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- 25:04Speaker 1: Hard Rock Bet. We continue the college football conversation on
- 25:08Speaker 1: the other side.
- 25:09Speaker 5: Back with you on the next.
- 25:10Speaker 1: Round presented by Hard Rock Bet at Sports State. Before
- 25:14Speaker 1: we jump in to more college football, basketball tonight here
- 25:19Speaker 1: in town and other exhibition games going on around the country,
- 25:23Speaker 1: But we get to watch Auburn and Florida State tonight,
- 25:25Speaker 1: 7 o'clock, balling in Batwell.
- 25:27Speaker 2: That'll be fun to see.
- 25:29Speaker 1: You heard Chris Lowe talk a little bit about the
- 25:33Speaker 1: LSU SEC legal battle still going on. After listening to
- 25:38Speaker 1: Chris talk and all of that, do you believe there
- 25:40Speaker 1: was fog yesterday in Baton Rouge?
- 25:43Speaker 2: Do not. To not get out? Do not. Now that
- 25:45Speaker 2: I know the SEC yesterday basically told a court, what
- 25:50Speaker 2: LSU basketball is doing with RJ Luis is showing that
- 25:54Speaker 2: they are still thumbing their nose at the SEC, that
- 25:56Speaker 2: they will not say because they practiced him, they've allowed
- 25:59Speaker 2: him to be part of the team, and they will
- 26:01Speaker 2: not publicly say he cannot play for us. And that's
- 26:04Speaker 2: what the SEC is saying is until LSU comes out
- 26:07Speaker 2: and definitively says RJ Luis cannot play for us, they
- 26:12Speaker 2: are continuing to do the exact same thing that we're
- 26:15Speaker 2: arguing they're doing in football. So that tells you why
- 26:18Speaker 2: Will Wade did not want to sit in front of
- 26:20Speaker 2: microphones yesterday, right?
- 26:22Speaker 5: And how much has this roster changed? They had five
- 26:25Speaker 5: guys last week.
- 26:26Speaker 1: They had four, and it went to ten yesterday. But
- 26:29Speaker 1: if you look at that picture, I've got the picture.
- 26:31Speaker 1: I saved it in case somebody asked. And I didn't
- 26:35Speaker 1: send it to Forrester, but I've got the screenshot here.
- 26:39Speaker 1: You look at some of those guys to make up
- 26:40Speaker 1: the ten and tell me if they would start on
- 26:43Speaker 1: the Pike team in Tuscaloosa.
- 26:47Speaker 2: I mean, there's four guys on that.
- 26:50Speaker 5: It looks like the old student managers. Or if you
- 26:53Speaker 5: watch a Duke North Carolina game senior night where they
- 26:57Speaker 5: give the guy the one quick start.
- 26:58Speaker 2: The 5'6 guard gets to start. I'm not going to
- 27:01Speaker 2: say any names. Stroke Pearson, if that's his real name. Oh,
- 27:04Speaker 2: I like that. Stroke Pearson's the guy's name. Yeah, I
- 27:06Speaker 2: think they're making up names. That might be made up.
- 27:09Speaker 2: Are you sure you're not looking at something and saying, Yeah,
- 27:11Speaker 2: there it is.
- 27:12Speaker 5: Forrester spoiled it.
- 27:13Speaker 2: So that's their actual, Scott, that's their actual photo roster
- 27:17Speaker 2: on their website? Yeah, that was tweeted by Glenn Gilbo.
- 27:22Speaker 5: You can promise me this is the core of the roster.
- 27:24Speaker 5: I will fade and I will play that under. Under
- 27:27Speaker 5: the win total, whatever it is, LSU.
- 27:29Speaker 1: But how fake is that, though? Can you read it,
- 27:33Speaker 1: Stroke Pearson? What's his height?
- 27:37Speaker 2: Here, I'll look up old Stroke Pearson.
- 27:39Speaker 5: It looks like it says 7'260 freshman.
- 27:42Speaker 2: 7 foot? Is what it says if I'm reading this correctly.
- 27:44Speaker 2: I thought Stroke Pearson was going to be 5'6. Stroke Pearson. See,
- 27:49Speaker 2: this has to be so fake.
- 27:50Speaker 5: Got him at 7'0, 260 pounds.
- 27:52Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 27:56Speaker 2: That picture looks.
- 27:57Speaker 5: Seven foot to you?
- 27:58Speaker 2: Yeah, it's straight, Pearson. Straight. It's an A, not an O.
- 28:02Speaker 5: Like Drake, but straight. No, he looks like kind of
- 28:04Speaker 5: a fire plug. The neck is so thick. You don't
- 28:06Speaker 5: see a neck that thick on a seven footer.
- 28:09Speaker 3: I agree.
- 28:09Speaker 5: Yeah. I mean, that's a 17, 18-inch neck.
- 28:13Speaker 2: Whoever took that picture made him look like he was 5'11.
- 28:15Speaker 5: I mean, you'd have to take, back in the old
- 28:17Speaker 5: Game of Thrones days, you'd have to take two swings
- 28:19Speaker 5: at that guy on the block.
- 28:21Speaker 2: He played at IMG. Does that surprise you? No.
- 28:24Speaker 1: I'm more impressive at Vets football than basketball. They got
- 28:26Speaker 1: Rick Stansberry's kid on the roster, 6'3, 185. Looks just
- 28:29Speaker 1: like him, too.
- 28:30Speaker 2: He really does. He is a young Rick Stansberry. He's
- 28:32Speaker 2: even got the hair. That hair is crazy. The hair
- 28:34Speaker 2: looks like a televangelist.
- 28:37Speaker 1: Auburn, Florida State, 7 o'clock tonight, and we'll get Alabama
- 28:39Speaker 1: Ole Miss tomorrow night at Ballin' in Batwell. The show
- 28:42Speaker 1: brought to you by Crockett Coffee. That's the coffee that
- 28:45Speaker 1: was started by Clay Travis, Buck Sexton, Buck's little brother Mason,
- 28:49Speaker 1: named after Davey Crockett, all the great... excitement you get
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- 29:27Speaker 1: for the families of fallen service members. Good coffee, made
- 29:31Speaker 1: in America, doing some good. CrockettCoffee.com. That's CrockettCoffee.com. Big 12's
- 29:37Speaker 1: in a pretty good spot right now. Four teams, if
- 29:41Speaker 1: you go by ESPN's percentages to make the college football playoffs,
- 29:47Speaker 1: they've got four teams, 23% are better to make the playoffs,
- 29:52Speaker 1: and one of them is not Oklahoma State. They're less
- 29:54Speaker 1: than that. BYU, Utah, Texas Tech, Houston. 23% or more.
- 30:00Speaker 1: Big Ten, fake or real and spectacular, as on the
- 30:05Speaker 1: Jerry Seinfeld episode?
- 30:07Speaker 5: You know, Houston's good, not great. BYU is a lot
- 30:13Speaker 5: better with L.J. Martin, but they're not whole right now.
- 30:15Speaker 5: I think Utah's probably the best of the bunch. Texas Tech,
- 30:19Speaker 5: Will Hammond's not a good quarterback. I mean, five touchdowns,
- 30:22Speaker 5: five picks this year. So they've got, well, I would
- 30:24Speaker 5: say they've got losses coming up. They just don't play anybody.
- 30:27Speaker 5: This is what's going to be interesting about the Big
- 30:29Speaker 5: 12 is BYU and Utah play each other, but if
- 30:33Speaker 5: BYU is very competitive against Notre Dame.
- 30:36Speaker 2: What if they beat them?
- 30:37Speaker 5: If they beat them, it's different.
- 30:38Speaker 2: To me, that's the best path to get two in
- 30:42Speaker 2: for sure. BYU beats Notre Dame and loses the conference championship.
- 30:45Speaker 5: I think that is also the best path for us
- 30:48Speaker 5: to have the perception the Big 12 is better than
- 30:50Speaker 5: it is right now because Oklahoma State's already beaten Oregon.
- 30:53Speaker 5: I just don't believe that they have got multiple teams
- 30:56Speaker 5: that deserve to be in the college football playoffs. As
- 30:58Speaker 5: soon as I say that, how many elite teams are
- 31:01Speaker 5: there really this year? Maybe at the end of this,
- 31:05Speaker 5: that ends up playing out, but I just don't know
- 31:08Speaker 5: how good these teams are right now.
- 31:10Speaker 2: I'll paint your best path for two teams. This is
- 31:12Speaker 2: it right here. BYU wins Saturday night against Notre Dame,
- 31:15Speaker 2: beats Utah in the regular season game, but it's Utah's
- 31:17Speaker 2: only loss, so they rematch in the conference championship, and
- 31:20Speaker 2: Utah beats BYU. So Utah gets the auto. And then
- 31:23Speaker 2: if you're BYU, they're like, I mean, what else can
- 31:25Speaker 2: we do? We beat everybody on our schedule, including Notre Dame.
- 31:28Speaker 5: You've got to give me a Texas Tech loss. I mean,
- 31:30Speaker 5: they've already beaten Houston.
- 31:32Speaker 2: My assumption was, well, that's true.
- 31:34Speaker 5: They have got to play at Oak State, and now
- 31:36Speaker 5: their second most difficult game is probably at Baylor right
- 31:39Speaker 5: now on paper.
- 31:40Speaker 2: I'm going to have them losing at Oak State, and
- 31:42Speaker 2: Oak State's going to pick up a loss somewhere, and
- 31:43Speaker 2: Utah wins that. Right now, BYU, Utah, loser. is staring
- 31:48Speaker 2: at not being in the big 12 championship game.
- 31:50Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 31:50Speaker 5: I mean, which might be a better scenario though. I mean,
- 31:53Speaker 5: it's going to be hard to, but if they, if
- 31:55Speaker 5: BYU maybe, but if they can keep four teams ranked,
- 31:58Speaker 5: I mean, whether, you know, Houston is the backend team
- 32:00Speaker 5: right now, but if Oklahoma state beat them, then Oklahoma
- 32:03Speaker 5: state would be ranked or Oklahoma state is ranked.
- 32:06Speaker 3: Right.
- 32:06Speaker 1: So right now, if I said the number of teams
- 32:11Speaker 1: that the big 12 gets in, uh, One, which is
- 32:17Speaker 1: the mandatory minimum.
- 32:20Speaker 2: Two or three?
- 32:24Speaker 5: I think they're going to get two.
- 32:25Speaker 2: You think the Big 12 is getting two in?
- 32:27Speaker 5: I do now just because when you start to look
- 32:30Speaker 5: at this, like the Big 10, they're going to force three, right?
- 32:35Speaker 1: There's no way the Big 10 or the SEC will
- 32:37Speaker 1: ever have less than three.
- 32:39Speaker 2: Now, your problem is if Oregon starts to lose more
- 32:42Speaker 2: games because Ohio State and Indiana are locks in there.
- 32:46Speaker 2: But you're going to have to pull somebody up out
- 32:48Speaker 2: of the dredges if USC does what you think USC
- 32:51Speaker 2: is going to do, if UCLA falls off with Nico's
- 32:54Speaker 2: injury now, and if Oregon grabs another loss somewhere and
- 32:56Speaker 2: they've got three losses.
- 32:58Speaker 5: So what are we doing our two-loss exercise?
- 33:03Speaker 2: We're doing that coming up in the next round.
- 33:04Speaker 5: Okay, okay. Anyway, I've got a point on that, but
- 33:07Speaker 5: I'll save it. I mean, that third team could be
- 33:10Speaker 5: tricky to find for the big team. I think based
- 33:12Speaker 5: on scheduling, they're going to get two.
- 33:14Speaker 3: Who?
- 33:15Speaker 5: Big 12. Because Tex-Tex schedules so easy, and then BYU
- 33:18Speaker 5: or Utah.
- 33:22Speaker 1: Real talented league or a little.
- 33:24Speaker 2: No, I think it's a talented league. Lance is right.
- 33:28Speaker 2: Will Hammond is such a big drop-off from what we
- 33:31Speaker 2: thought Sorsby was going to be. We don't know what
- 33:32Speaker 2: Sorsby was going to be. I'm just saying what we
- 33:34Speaker 2: thought Sorsby was.
- 33:34Speaker 5: Going to be. It's the third-best league this year.
- 33:37Speaker 1: They're 8th, 10th, and 11th in the AP poll, and
- 33:41Speaker 1: then you throw in 18 and 20, so they've got
- 33:43Speaker 1: five teams that are ranked But behind, okay, behind BYU,
- 33:50Speaker 1: just go Ole Miss as ninth. Ole Miss against BYU,
- 33:53Speaker 1: Texas Tech, Utah. Are they 3-0, 2-1, 1-2, 0-3?
- 33:59Speaker 2: Some of it is, are they playing any on the road?
- 34:01Speaker 2: I would say they're 2-0. Neutral side with Keywon Lacy.
- 34:04Speaker 2: With Keywon Lacy?
- 34:05Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 34:06Speaker 5: I would lean.
- 34:07Speaker 2: I would say 3-0.
- 34:10Speaker 5: Wait, you're saying Ole Miss against those three?
- 34:13Speaker 2: Ole Miss against those teams. BYU, Texas Tech, Utah.
- 34:16Speaker 5: I'll go 2-1. Yeah.
- 34:18Speaker 2: They would lose one.
- 34:20Speaker 5: Yeah, I think they would.
- 34:21Speaker 2: Missouri, 13th in the country. I'd go 2-1.
- 34:23Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd go 2-1 too. Yeah. Maybe 1-2.
- 34:27Speaker 2: Is Ditka driving the bus? Texas? God rest his soul.
- 34:31Speaker 5: 2-1 or 1-2.
- 34:34Speaker 2: I'd like to see them in Texas Tech, but... Yeah.
- 34:38Speaker 2: Wouldn't not be as much fun a game as it
- 34:39Speaker 2: sounded like it would be in July. Well, that story
- 34:41Speaker 2: died in a hurry, didn't it? I thought we might
- 34:43Speaker 2: have that story all season long.
- 34:44Speaker 5: Yeah, I... You know, BYU-Utah, what's crazy is I don't
- 34:48Speaker 5: think Texas Tech's their best team.
- 34:49Speaker 2: I don't either.
- 34:50Speaker 5: I would tell you, whoever wins this weekend between Oak
- 34:52Speaker 5: State and Houston. But I know Texas Tech's already beaten Houston.
- 34:55Speaker 2: There's a 2-0 team in this conference we never talk about. Ever, ever,
- 34:59Speaker 2: ever talk about. And they actually control almost all of
- 35:03Speaker 2: this is Baylor. Baylor finishes at BYU, hosts Texas Tech,
- 35:07Speaker 2: and at Houston. We've mentioned all three of those teams.
- 35:10Speaker 2: Baylor plays them on the last three weeks of the season.
- 35:12Speaker 2: I don't think Baylor's going to be around at the
- 35:14Speaker 2: end of this. But Baylor, I mean, they do control
- 35:19Speaker 2: a lot of this by the way they finish their season.
- 35:20Speaker 5: And I think an inch, you know.
- 35:23Speaker 2: They're undefeated.
- 35:23Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think we view them a little bit differently.
- 35:25Speaker 2: I guess. I mean, it's tough that we just flushed
- 35:28Speaker 2: Baylor because in an opening game where their quarterback was
- 35:31Speaker 2: on one leg, they lost on a missed two-point conversion,
- 35:34Speaker 2: and we completely flushed them.
- 35:35Speaker 5: Well, if they would have won that game, they'd be ranked,
- 35:37Speaker 5: and the Big 12 would have six ranked teams right now.
- 35:41Speaker 1: I would say this, though, and no shot here, but
- 35:44Speaker 1: if Auburn doesn't turn it around, I hate to say it,
- 35:47Speaker 1: but that ends up being a bad loss for Baylor.
- 35:49Speaker 1: It's a weight around their neck, yeah. Auburn's the bottom
- 35:52Speaker 1: third team in the SEC right now, bottom quarter team
- 35:54Speaker 1: in the SEC. And Oklahoma State has the loss to Tulsa.
- 35:58Speaker 2: Which is a weight around their neck. Which is going
- 35:59Speaker 2: to be hard to overcome. But I think for Baylor
- 36:01Speaker 2: and Oklahoma State, it's all about winning their conference championship game.
- 36:03Speaker 2: They're going to have to do that to get in
- 36:05Speaker 2: with the Auburn loss and the Tulsa loss. So those
- 36:07Speaker 2: losses are almost a freebie for them because they're not
- 36:10Speaker 2: going to get an at-large.
- 36:11Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm going to disagree on Oak State. If Oregon
- 36:15Speaker 5: wins out, Oregon's 10-2, that Oregon win would negate the
- 36:20Speaker 5: Tulsa loss. And if Oklahoma State is 11-1 playing in
- 36:24Speaker 5: the conference championship and they even lose, I think they
- 36:26Speaker 5: get in.
- 36:27Speaker 1: Tyler, give me cut number four. It's bounce-back week for
- 36:30Speaker 1: Alabama and Texas after their losses this past weekend. Here's
- 36:34Speaker 1: Alabama linebacker Luke Metz on having to flush the Georgia
- 36:39Speaker 1: loss pretty quickly going on the road to play 14th-ranked Tennessee.
- 36:43Speaker 7: Yeah, you just got to flush it. I mean, that's
- 36:46Speaker 7: last week. I mean, every week's its own week. So
- 36:51Speaker 7: it's a competitive league. You got to flush it. You
- 36:53Speaker 7: got to get right back to work this week with Tennessee.
- 36:56Speaker 6: Loss has got to be hard to flush that win, right?
- 36:59Speaker 2: For sure.
- 36:59Speaker 7: I mean, you come to this next week and you're
- 37:02Speaker 7: definitely a little angry.
- 37:04Speaker 1: That's Luke Metz there, Alabama and Tennessee. Texas with a
- 37:08Speaker 1: tricky game at home to Florida. It's high road, low
- 37:12Speaker 1: road time for Texas. Are they going to take the
- 37:16Speaker 1: high road, which leads to 11-1, 10-2? Or are they
- 37:20Speaker 1: going to take the low road that leads to 9-3, 8-4, 7-5?
- 37:23Speaker 1: And a lot of that, which road they go on,
- 37:28Speaker 1: will be decided this week on if they can beat
- 37:30Speaker 1: Florida at home.
- 37:31Speaker 5: I think they're 9-3, I think, is the record at
- 37:34Speaker 5: the end of the year. But I think they're going
- 37:36Speaker 5: to get in because of the win over Ohio State.
- 37:38Speaker 1: Yeah, but take the playoff out of it. So 9-3
- 37:41Speaker 1: is where you think this team can end up.
- 37:44Speaker 5: I mean, they get a break because they're playing Florida
- 37:46Speaker 5: that is nosedived. They get Ole Miss at home. Then
- 37:50Speaker 5: they get a Mississippi State team with or without Camario Taylor.
- 37:53Speaker 2: You think Taylor might be back for that game, then?
- 37:55Speaker 5: Yeah, that's looking like the targeted date.
- 37:57Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 37:57Speaker 5: But then I think best case, you go to Missouri
- 38:00Speaker 5: and to LSU. Best case is a split, right?
- 38:03Speaker 2: I mean, I guess, yes. I mean— LSU gets that
- 38:06Speaker 2: game right after Bama. That seems like a tough spot
- 38:09Speaker 2: for LSU to play them, win or lose.
- 38:10Speaker 5: Yeah, I just feel like Ole Miss, because of the offense. Now,
- 38:13Speaker 5: Texas should have success against that Ole Miss defense. But
- 38:16Speaker 5: I would say Ole Miss and then one of those two,
- 38:18Speaker 5: Missouri or LSU. But I think they're more 9-3.
- 38:23Speaker 1: Do you think that they handled the business this weekend
- 38:26Speaker 1: against Florida and stay on the high road?
- 38:28Speaker 7: I mean.
- 38:30Speaker 2: From what I've watched recently, yes, but having watched the
- 38:32Speaker 2: SEC this year, are you going to be stunned if
- 38:34Speaker 2: Florida beats Texas? I'm not. I mean, look, Arch Manning's
- 38:38Speaker 2: turning the ball over a little bit right now.
- 38:41Speaker 5: Well, can they pressure Arch? Arch has been terrible while pressured.
- 38:44Speaker 5: He was sacked six times this past week. They had
- 38:49Speaker 5: 13-3 and out.
- 38:50Speaker 2: And Florida's defense has not been good. I mean, John
- 38:52Speaker 2: Summerall has been, you know, bellyaching about his defense from
- 38:56Speaker 2: the start of the year, and it hasn't gotten much better.
- 38:58Speaker 2: Even in the win over Auburn, who has Auburn moved
- 39:01Speaker 2: the ball on like they moved it on Florida? Nobody.
- 39:04Speaker 5: Well, this is that stretch. There's no excuses for Sark
- 39:07Speaker 5: and Arch coming out of this three-game stretch against Florida,
- 39:11Speaker 5: Ole Miss, Mississippi State. Those aren't great defenses. It's an
- 39:14Speaker 5: opportunity to pad some numbers and get some confidence back
- 39:17Speaker 5: up while you're rolling into November.
- 39:19Speaker 2: To answer your question, I'm not going to be stunned
- 39:21Speaker 2: if Florida wins the game, but I do not expect
- 39:23Speaker 2: Florida to win this game.
- 39:24Speaker 5: And I think the basement is probably 8-4, but if
- 39:27Speaker 5: Texas won out, it wouldn't shock me.
- 39:29Speaker 2: Florida had a way better shot in this game if
- 39:31Speaker 2: Texas had been impressive against Oklahoma and had won that game.
- 39:35Speaker 1: Do you guys watch college football every night? Will you
- 39:37Speaker 1: turn on either one of the games tonight? Well, we're
- 39:40Speaker 1: doing the basketball games.
- 39:41Speaker 2: So no.
- 39:42Speaker 1: If I was at home, who are the games? Combine
- 39:45Speaker 1: 5-16 between the four teams that are playing tonight. Kennesaw
- 39:48Speaker 1: State at most state. two 1-4 teams, and Western Kentucky
- 39:53Speaker 1: at Sam Houston State, two and four versus one and five.
- 39:55Speaker 2: The only thing that wrote me in last night, it's
- 39:57Speaker 2: my old school Jack State. If Jack State had not
- 39:59Speaker 2: been playing last night, I don't think I would have
- 40:01Speaker 2: watched either game that was on Middle Tennessee and Delaware
- 40:05Speaker 2: could have played in my basement, and I would have
- 40:08Speaker 2: asked them to hold it down.
- 40:08Speaker 5: Well, the only reason I did is I had plays
- 40:10Speaker 5: on both, but would I watch if we weren't courtside tonight?
- 40:16Speaker 1: I would have it on. I was focused on Saban,
- 40:19Speaker 1: the documentary. I would say this. This is why the
- 40:23Speaker 1: baseball playoffs should take Saturday and Sundays off is to
- 40:27Speaker 1: avoid the crowded football Saturday and Sunday because you can beat,
- 40:32Speaker 1: where baseball is, you can beat a lot of these
- 40:34Speaker 1: midweek college games, especially the Tuesday, Wednesday, now Thursday slate.
- 40:42Speaker 1: You go up against the NFL on Monday and Thursday,
- 40:44Speaker 1: but baseball playoff, gets on somebody, if you've got multiple TVs,
- 40:48Speaker 1: gets on there. It's hard on Saturday and Sunday to
- 40:51Speaker 1: watch that baseball.
- 40:52Speaker 2: No, it is. It's impossible. It's not even hard. It's impossible.
- 40:55Speaker 2: I mean, I know like if you're Scott and it's
- 40:57Speaker 2: your White Sox, you do it. But if you're just
- 40:59Speaker 2: somebody like me that's looking for sports entertainment, zero chance.
- 41:03Speaker 2: And the baseball has been pretty good, pretty entertaining with
- 41:06Speaker 2: my Tampa Bay Raiders. Your team's getting killed for not
- 41:08Speaker 2: selling out the dome.
- 41:10Speaker 1: Well, I would say the people that are killing them,
- 41:13Speaker 1: probably don't know that they open up above Dome sellout.
- 41:17Speaker 2: Our sellout is less than 30,000. Oh, so this is seats?
- 41:21Speaker 2: These are extra seats that are usually tarped off. Okay, okay.
- 41:24Speaker 1: And they've gone 40,000 in a couple of games. Last night,
- 41:28Speaker 1: there was not 40,000 fans there, but they did leave
- 41:31Speaker 1: the upper deck open. If you go around and look
- 41:34Speaker 1: at stadium sizes in Pittsburgh and the places and see.
- 41:37Speaker 2: Go 40,000 in those places.
- 41:40Speaker 1: And I would also say those people have never tried
- 41:43Speaker 1: to cross the bridge on a work day, leaving Tampa
- 41:46Speaker 1: on that one long bridge out to St.
- 41:48Speaker 2: Petersburg.
- 41:49Speaker 5: It's no fun.
- 41:50Speaker 2: That's a haul.
- 41:50Speaker 5: I mean, it's a good, I mean, I don't know,
- 41:53Speaker 5: even in traffic, it's worse. But I mean, just with
- 41:55Speaker 5: no traffic, it's like 35 minutes.
- 41:56Speaker 2: Yeah, that's with no traffic.
- 41:58Speaker 1: Now do it with the middle of a work week.
- 42:01Speaker 1: You live in Tampa and now you got to go
- 42:03Speaker 1: drive out there.
- 42:04Speaker 2: Come on. such a serious fan base. God, we've got
- 42:07Speaker 2: to cross the bridge, guys. Is it the ALCS? It is,
- 42:11Speaker 2: but I'm crossing that bridge.
- 42:12Speaker 5: You think an Alabama fan would cross the bridge? They
- 42:15Speaker 5: wouldn't go to work that day. They'd take the day off.
- 42:17Speaker 5: They'd go under the bridge on a boat to get
- 42:19Speaker 5: to that game.
- 42:20Speaker 1: Anyway, fan base doesn't matter. They were loud and proud
- 42:24Speaker 1: last night. Thank God the Guardians couldn't field anything. Tampa
- 42:27Speaker 1: Bay evened the series up. When we come back, our
- 42:30Speaker 1: nine unbeaten teams left. We ranked them one through nine quickly.
- 42:35Speaker 1: in the final segment of sport and state, uh, number
- 42:38Speaker 1: one's easy.
- 42:38Speaker 5: It's Georgia.
- 42:39Speaker 1: The other unbeatens right after them. How, uh, how do
- 42:42Speaker 1: you rank one through nine? We'll tell you on the
- 42:44Speaker 1: other side.
- 42:44Speaker 2: All right.
- 42:45Speaker 1: Final segment of our first half here of the next round, uh,
- 42:49Speaker 1: sport and state presented by our friends at hard rock bet.
- 42:52Speaker 2: Don't forget.
- 42:52Speaker 1: We have a whole second half of the show, two
- 42:54Speaker 1: more hours coming up on our at next round, live
- 42:57Speaker 1: platforms on YouTube, Instagram, on Twitter, X, Tik TOK, wherever
- 43:02Speaker 1: you get, uh, Social media, we're there at Next Round Live,
- 43:07Speaker 1: at Next Round Live. Go find us. Watch two more
- 43:10Speaker 1: hours at your convenience. Also, you get your podcast, Spotify
- 43:13Speaker 1: and others. Enjoy the show at your convenience. And that's
- 43:16Speaker 1: two more hours where we jump into some more college
- 43:20Speaker 1: football and the NFL throughout the day. Some entertainment stuff
- 43:23Speaker 1: coming up as well. This part of the show being
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- 43:27Speaker 2: XXXY, founded by Jennifer Say, national champion gymnast, Levi's brand president,
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- 44:25Speaker 2: Smart is one of the nine unbeaten teams in college football.
- 44:28Speaker 1: Probably going to be number one on all of our lists.
- 44:31Speaker 1: He got asked this week about the two leaked videos
- 44:34Speaker 1: out of his locker room. The pre-game and post-game videos.
- 44:37Speaker 1: speeches here's Kirby on the leaked videos.
- 44:41Speaker 5: Kirby because I know how sacred the locker room is
- 44:43Speaker 5: to you what was your reaction to the leaked audio
- 44:45Speaker 5: and will you make any changes about who you do
- 44:48Speaker 5: allow or don't allow in your locker.
- 44:49Speaker 3: Room yeah I mean it's happened before it's not something
- 44:54Speaker 3: I want I feel like that that's a spot that
- 44:57Speaker 3: you should be able to feel safe to talk to
- 45:00Speaker 3: your team and communicate with your team and I mean
- 45:03Speaker 3: it's happened before to us we got to do a
- 45:04Speaker 3: better job managing it honestly.
- 45:07Speaker 1: Uh jd he works at on three sports jd piquel
- 45:11Speaker 1: piquel did a really funny thing he did a suitable
- 45:15Speaker 1: for all ages uh reading of what kirby said uh
- 45:20Speaker 1: in there you know he changed the words to fudging
- 45:22Speaker 1: and fudging that kind of thing but he just read
- 45:25Speaker 1: it in a normal voice kirby really didn't say a
- 45:28Speaker 1: whole lot it just it was a lot of cuss.
- 45:29Speaker 2: Words well Do we ever play the pregame? I know
- 45:33Speaker 2: Scott had it, but Scott said he bleeped it, and
- 45:35Speaker 2: I'm like, what was left? Scott, was there anything left
- 45:38Speaker 2: after the bleeps? The pregame is a lot more bleeping
- 45:43Speaker 2: than the postgame. Yeah. I mean, there was nothing left.
- 45:47Speaker 2: It's a lot of bleeps. I mean, that's... That's locker
- 45:51Speaker 2: room language. I mean, I think you hear that in
- 45:53Speaker 2: every locker room. I don't believe this. I love Kirby.
- 45:57Speaker 2: Kirby's been good to our show over the years. I
- 46:00Speaker 2: think this was intentional.
- 46:02Speaker 5: Lane, it was intentional. I mean, Lane, we know 1,000%
- 46:05Speaker 5: was intentional on that leak. Again, it's just so dangerous
- 46:09Speaker 5: to leak it without any kind of consent.
- 46:11Speaker 2: Here's why I'm going to give Kirby a compliment in
- 46:16Speaker 2: saying that I think it was intentional. I don't think
- 46:20Speaker 2: a staff member would risk it with this guy. He
- 46:22Speaker 2: runs too tight of a ship. He's too demanding. He's
- 46:26Speaker 2: too buttoned up. He's too in control. If you watch
- 46:29Speaker 2: the video, it starts with the phone pointing at the floor,
- 46:32Speaker 2: and it's clearly a staff member. He's got on the
- 46:34Speaker 2: khakis and the shoes, right, that they all wear. And
- 46:37Speaker 2: then he covers it up and holds it up. Like,
- 46:39Speaker 2: have you guys, this question sounds creepier than it is,
- 46:43Speaker 2: have you ever secretly videoed someone And by that, hang on.
- 46:48Speaker 2: Let him go. Let him go. By that, I mean
- 46:52Speaker 2: like if you're out in public and you see somebody
- 46:54Speaker 2: doing something goofy and you're trying to video it, it's
- 46:56Speaker 2: kind of hard to do without giving yourself away. Like
- 46:59Speaker 2: you can act like you're trying to do a selfie
- 47:01Speaker 2: or something on your video and it's hard to video
- 47:03Speaker 2: somebody without giving yourself away. Is it kind of like
- 47:06Speaker 2: Picking is kind of hard sometimes. It's kind of hard
- 47:08Speaker 2: to do this without giving yourself away. No, you're right.
- 47:10Speaker 5: I'm trying to remember because I have done this and
- 47:13Speaker 5: there was a reason for me doing it.
- 47:14Speaker 2: Yeah, like, I mean, you see somebody making a fool
- 47:16Speaker 2: of himself and you're just going to try to get
- 47:18Speaker 2: the video of it.
- 47:19Speaker 5: No, and I remember it was like in a bar
- 47:20Speaker 5: or restaurant and the guy started walking towards me, but
- 47:22Speaker 5: something was going on.
- 47:24Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 47:24Speaker 5: Trying to remember what the situation was.
- 47:25Speaker 2: But I'm just saying.
- 47:26Speaker 5: Yeah, it is very difficult to do.
- 47:27Speaker 2: You guys have been in these college football locker rooms.
- 47:30Speaker 2: You're cramped together. Like, it's going to be, somebody's going
- 47:33Speaker 2: to see you doing this. Come on, man. You think
- 47:35Speaker 2: somebody's going to risk their job, their career? Can you tell.
- 47:40Speaker 5: Somebody's rolling if the phone's just like this?
- 47:42Speaker 2: I don't know. But if you're an analyst or a
- 47:44Speaker 2: GA and you want to do this for a living
- 47:46Speaker 2: and you get fired because you videoed in the locker room,
- 47:48Speaker 2: good luck.
- 47:49Speaker 4: But if you've got a privacy screen straight up, I'm
- 47:52Speaker 4: going to assume you're filming. Because if you're just like
- 47:55Speaker 4: scrolling on it, it's going to be kind of like
- 47:57Speaker 4: flat in your hand or at an angle. But if
- 47:58Speaker 4: it's like this okay trying to line up.
- 48:00Speaker 5: You could go corvette guy and have it on your
- 48:03Speaker 5: belt i'm just saying if you can't tell if it's
- 48:05Speaker 5: rolling and then you could have it rolling and you
- 48:07Speaker 5: could be walking around with.
- 48:09Speaker 1: It it's weird though when kirby starts walking you start doing.
- 48:12Speaker 4: This you could be using those ray-ban glasses with the
- 48:15Speaker 4: camera yeah that's not what happened the pervert glasses that.
- 48:18Speaker 1: Is better all right so uh all that to get
- 48:21Speaker 1: to uh the ranking of your nine unbeaten teams left
- 48:25Speaker 1: That includes out of the SEC only Georgia. Notre Dame
- 48:30Speaker 1: is an independent. James Madison is in the Sun Belt.
- 48:34Speaker 1: UCLA and Indiana is in the Big Ten. Miami is
- 48:37Speaker 1: in the ACC. And Utah, BYU, and Texas Tech are
- 48:40Speaker 1: in the Big 12. How about Georgia being the only
- 48:42Speaker 1: unbeaten team in the SEC? They're everybody's number one.
- 48:45Speaker 4: Yes.
- 48:45Speaker 2: Okay, who's number two for you? Give me your list, LT.
- 48:49Speaker 5: I've got Notre Dame at number two. and I think
- 48:52Speaker 5: Notre Dame is one of the four, maybe five teams
- 48:56Speaker 5: that we will see at the end of the year.
- 48:58Speaker 5: So I've got Notre Dame number two. I've got Indiana
- 49:00Speaker 5: number three. I know you guys don't think a lot
- 49:02Speaker 5: about Indiana, but I think they're going to get better
- 49:03Speaker 5: and better. Obviously, they're as well coached as anybody in
- 49:06Speaker 5: college football. They're not turning the football over, and they're
- 49:09Speaker 5: forcing turnover. So I've got Indiana number three. I've got
- 49:12Speaker 5: Miami four. I am still not sold on this Miami defense.
- 49:17Speaker 5: Utah five. I think they are the best of the
- 49:19Speaker 5: Big 12. right now byu six i've still got ucla
- 49:23Speaker 5: seven the quarterback situation is bad but texas techs might
- 49:27Speaker 5: be as bad without the injury so i've got texas
- 49:30Speaker 5: tech behind ucla and then jmu.
- 49:32Speaker 1: Would be not yeah mine's close to yours georgia notre
- 49:34Speaker 1: dame miami indiana.
- 49:36Speaker 2: Utah, BYU.
- 49:37Speaker 1: I go Texas Tech because of the injury UCLA and
- 49:40Speaker 1: James Madison.
- 49:41Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought the difficult part was how you arrange
- 49:43Speaker 2: these Big 12 teams because I think we've all got
- 49:45Speaker 2: them ranked right together, right? BYU, Utah, and Texas Tech.
- 49:47Speaker 2: That's right. That's the order I chose. Miami, Notre Dame,
- 49:51Speaker 2: we'll see them play. Like, I mean, Miami's not playing anybody,
- 49:55Speaker 2: but I mean, they are just pistol whipping every one
- 49:57Speaker 2: of them, Lance, and their quarterback ain't letting the ball
- 49:59Speaker 2: touch the field. Notre Dame's not playing anybody, and I'm
- 50:02Speaker 2: not really watching CJ Carr play because they don't play anybody.
- 50:05Speaker 1: There are some people that asked after the Alabama loss
- 50:08Speaker 1: to Georgia, Joel Klatt on our show and others that
- 50:12Speaker 1: said Alabama is still two, three, four, five best teams
- 50:15Speaker 1: in the country. Where on your board, Brownie, do you
- 50:18Speaker 1: slide Alabama in?
- 50:20Speaker 2: Oh, no worse than five. They're definitely better than BYU
- 50:25Speaker 2: and any of those Big 12 teams. I think if
- 50:28Speaker 2: Alabama and Indiana played on a neutral side, Alabama would win.
- 50:32Speaker 2: You know, you get to Miami and Notre Dame. I
- 50:34Speaker 2: just don't know. Miami and Notre Dame have played nobody.
- 50:36Speaker 2: It is so hard to gauge. I think these teams
- 50:39Speaker 2: are really good, but it's so hard to gauge. And
- 50:41Speaker 2: then we just saw this one.
- 50:42Speaker 7: I mean.
- 50:43Speaker 5: Yeah, I would go Georgia, Notre Dame, Alabama, Indiana. I
- 50:50Speaker 5: would definitely go Alabama over Miami. I would go Alabama
- 50:53Speaker 5: over Indiana at this point. I'm not sure about Notre Dame.
- 50:56Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 50:56Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm with you. It's just hard to know. I
- 51:00Speaker 2: watch those teams. I see Mensah tear it up. They've
- 51:03Speaker 2: got a ton of talent. C.J. Carr is tearing it up.
- 51:06Speaker 2: They've got a ton of talent. But, man, they don't
- 51:08Speaker 2: play anybody yet.
- 51:09Speaker 5: You know what's so crazy is Alabama gets that call.
- 51:13Speaker 5: They go in and score there. They win that game.
- 51:15Speaker 5: We're talking about Alabama right now.
- 51:17Speaker 1: Everybody would have them number one, right? Consensus number one
- 51:19Speaker 1: around the country is where they would be.
- 51:21Speaker 2: They'd be number one in the polls.
- 51:24Speaker 5: Still, do you think Notre Dame might have gotten it?
- 51:28Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe.
- 51:29Speaker 1: Some people had Notre Dame, but I would have gone
- 51:32Speaker 1: Alabama at that point with their wins.
- 51:35Speaker 2: Really interesting.
- 51:37Speaker 1: The nine unbeaten teams that are left, and we start
- 51:39Speaker 1: knocking a few of those off as some of them
- 51:42Speaker 1: are scheduled to play head-to-head. Alabama and Auburn conversation on
- 51:46Speaker 1: their big rivalry games this weekend coming up in the
- 51:49Speaker 1: second half of our show after our timeout coming up
- 51:52Speaker 1: at the top of the hour.
- 51:53Speaker 2: I will tell you this.
- 51:55Speaker 1: I did learn From the Sports Business Journal, and our
- 52:00Speaker 1: final thought here, according to them, Florida State is more
- 52:04Speaker 1: than $ 430 million in debt. That has come out this week.
- 52:10Speaker 1: Florida State Athletics, more than $ 430 million in debt. And
- 52:14Speaker 1: it's facility-related, which is more, as the Sports Business Journal writes,
- 52:20Speaker 1: which means it's more difficult for them to take on
- 52:22Speaker 1: more debt. So they're almost banked out of their credit line.
- 52:26Speaker 5: Was MC Hammer doing their checkbook?
- 52:29Speaker 2: With $ 430 million in debt, Sports Business Journal. It's crazy.
- 52:32Speaker 1: And it sounds a lot like what South Carolina is
- 52:34Speaker 1: facing because most of their debt was upgrades to William
- 52:38Speaker 1: Bryce and some of the facilities there. And apparently that
- 52:41Speaker 1: kind of debt is the bad debt that you can't
- 52:43Speaker 1: take on more debt as an academic institution or an
- 52:49Speaker 1: athletic department. And ironically, both of those programs, the coaches
- 52:54Speaker 1: have turned it around a little bit. But both of
- 52:56Speaker 1: those programs are looking at pretty hefty buyouts to get
- 52:59Speaker 1: rid of Beamer and Norvell at one point. And a
- 53:02Speaker 1: lot of people are saying because of those two debt
- 53:04Speaker 1: situations that both of those guys will be back next year.
- 53:07Speaker 5: Look, I know it's an arms race. You've got to spend–
- 53:11Speaker 5: the facilities have got to be great. but you've got
- 53:14Speaker 5: to have an end result. Like, okay, we're in debt,
- 53:16Speaker 5: but we're winning 10 games a year. You're in debt,
- 53:19Speaker 5: but you want to fire your coach. I mean, that's
- 53:21Speaker 5: bad on bad. But what do you think is the
- 53:24Speaker 5: easier sell to the booster? If you're interim athletics director,
- 53:28Speaker 5: because Michael Lawford, the athletics director, got fired. But if
- 53:30Speaker 5: you're interim athletics director, easier sell to the booster. Hey, Jim,
- 53:35Speaker 5: we're $ 480 million in debt. You think you could stroke
- 53:37Speaker 5: us a $ 10 million check to knock some of that off? Or, hey, Jim,
- 53:42Speaker 5: I'm done with Norvell, too. Could you stroke me a
- 53:43Speaker 5: $ 10 million check for the buyout?
- 53:44Speaker 2: Which one do you think the booster's going to go for? Norvell.
- 53:46Speaker 2: The buyout in a heartbeat, right? It's easier to raise
- 53:49Speaker 2: that money than it is the debt retirement money.
- 53:51Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 53:51Speaker 1: I mean, keep in mind, let's say you're in the
- 53:54Speaker 1: SEC and you get $ 100 million a year just in
- 53:59Speaker 1: media rights and things. Let's just say that's an even
- 54:01Speaker 1: easy number. Without any expenses at all, it would take
- 54:05Speaker 1: almost five seasons of getting that paycheck from the SEC
- 54:08Speaker 1: to be out of debt.
- 54:09Speaker 4: I know.
- 54:09Speaker 2: To be debt-free.
- 54:09Speaker 3: Exactly.
- 54:10Speaker 2: Exactly. That's if all of it went to the bottom line.
- 54:14Speaker 5: That's a bad spot to be.
- 54:15Speaker 2: They'll never be debt-free, ever. They won't. Rutgers won't.
- 54:18Speaker 5: Hey, it's America.
- 54:20Speaker 2: That's right.
- 54:20Speaker 5: We're never going to be debt-free. Can you declare bankruptcy
- 54:23Speaker 5: as a program?
- 54:23Speaker 1: You guys make it sound like Florida State has one
- 54:25Speaker 1: of those little clocks you see at the conventions.
- 54:27Speaker 5: The debt's just the numbers just rolling. They could borrow
- 54:30Speaker 5: from China.
- 54:33Speaker 2: Private equity. Work for us. All right, that, not us,
- 54:36Speaker 2: is a show. Us being the United States. The United States,
- 54:38Speaker 2: not us, is a show. We've never borrowed a dollar.
- 54:42Speaker 2: From China. That's our show. We're back with you.
- 54:47Speaker 1: In just a few seconds on the second half of
- 54:48Speaker 1: the next round at Next Round Live. Buck and Clay
- 54:51Speaker 1: are next live here on Sporting State.