Playoff Picture Set for CFB, Sam Darnold Gets His Flowers, Soto's Fat Contract, and F1 Finale in Abu Dhabi

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Let's do it. We're recording Monday night. This is source from the Sofa podcast and I'm barely clinging onto my sofa as I am recovering from a long, long weekend of football and Christmas parties. How's everyone else doing? [00:00:20] Speaker B: Doing well. [00:00:22] Speaker C: I mean, I'm not as bad as you, but I, I wasn't. I didn't have a great week in either room. [00:00:27] Speaker A: Yeah, the Bears, man. Usually teams respond when they fire their coach and they did the opposite. I don't get it. I don't get it. [00:00:39] Speaker B: I think it's actually some silver lining for the Bears is Thomas Brown will not be the full time coach. Given what we saw on Sunday, going forward, there will be a new guy in the building. [00:00:48] Speaker C: I agree with Aaron on that. There was way too much talk going into the week from the Bears followers on X and, you know, media types around Chicago and stuff with Thomas Brown's overall vibe. And yeah, they definitely took his name out of the running for a head coaching position after, you know, all the great talk in the, the press conferences and the team. The team reacting to their, you know, different type of leader and accountability and was saying all the right things. But when it came down to it, the defense was remarkably worse without Eber flu. So there was plenty of things on X noting Eber flu was in Cancun, just laughing at how bad the defense was. And the offense had one of the worst first halfs maybe ever. Did they have two total yards, Aaron? [00:01:38] Speaker B: I believe it was four with five total punts out. They were out yardage schemed, I think like 320, 319 to 4 yards. That was a total start to the first half. [00:01:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I said after the second drive out loud to my friend that I was with at the game. His wife had asked who was the. Who's the Bears best player before the game and it was besides quarterback, who's your best player? And I said, Jalen Johnson, Bears cornerback. But after the second drive I said, nah. Tori Taylor, our punter is actually our best player because it may have been worse if he didn't pin the Niners down within the 10 yard lines a couple times with some of the punts he put out there. [00:02:19] Speaker A: But it was bad that that Kayla Williams quote telling his partner that he's not going to be playing a lot this year is like epic. That's a T shirt. As a T shirt. [00:02:32] Speaker C: Yeah, that. That will live for the Bears for quite a long time. Hopefully not beyond much this season and next season if they could figure the offense around, which they should but yeah, pretty. Pretty epic quotes. That's just gonna stick with it every time the Bears have to punt. [00:02:46] Speaker B: It's funny you mentioned the punter because I don't know if Rome remembers when we used to go to the Charger games, back when they were kind of up and down. When the punter would come on the field, they would boo. And one guy behind us when we were in our seats would say, hey, I don't know why you guys are booing. Our MVP is on the field. Stop booing. [00:03:07] Speaker A: That was so cool having season tickets for the Chargers. I was like, it was a good time down there in San Diego. [00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a good time, man. [00:03:14] Speaker A: They should have never left. [00:03:16] Speaker C: Well, it was a good time the time that Aaron. I was part of those season tickets. I remember I. I refused to wear Chargers gear, but I wore the purple with Danny and Tomlinson jersey every time I went with Aaron. And I would be yelled at by Chargers fans every single time about wearing Ravens or Vikings gear. Every time. And Tomlinson never played for the Ravens. He never played for the Vikings. Like the TC TCU jersey, bro. I. I respect the team here. The Bears aren't playing. I will not wear Bears attire, but I will represent one of the greatest running backs of all time, and I'll just wear the TCU jersey. Still got that jersey, too. [00:03:53] Speaker A: Nice. You should rock it one of these days. [00:03:56] Speaker C: All right, I will. [00:03:56] Speaker B: I'm not sure. I'm not sure he fits in it anymore, but. [00:04:02] Speaker C: Yeah, it was probably tight already. I want to put it on. [00:04:09] Speaker A: Oh, that's comedy. I'm struggling here, guys. Fun Monday night game, though. Bengals, Cowboys. I had no expectations for this game at all. Burrow, dude, guy's a baller. Came out and played, lit it up again. It was like a one drive though, and like they totally missed the face mask on him and they ended up putting it on the next one. It was just like a lot of weird stuff that went, went, went on that game. But I'm happy that the Bengals at least got. Got a victory for a change and got something to go their way. [00:04:43] Speaker B: Yeah, ironic they don't call the face mask. They punt, it gets blocked. [00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Cowboys make a bonehead play. [00:04:50] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:04:51] Speaker B: And then the Bengals get it and what, three plays later, Jamar Chase is doing what he does best, getting his multi touchdowns again fast. [00:04:58] Speaker A: He's good. [00:04:59] Speaker B: Real quick. [00:05:00] Speaker A: Burrow and Chase, man, probably. [00:05:02] Speaker B: They gotta pay, man. [00:05:03] Speaker A: They might be my favorite quarterback wide receiver duo. [00:05:09] Speaker B: It's probably one of those quarterback wipers. We're Doing the league right now. [00:05:13] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt they're wasting. You know what's been a outstanding offensive season for the Bengals offense, particularly with Burrow and Chase, but they're amazing to watch every single time. Chase is probably delivering a bunch of fantasy titles to a bunch of people for his past couple weeks here. That's probably got some people into the playoffs, dude. [00:05:36] Speaker A: 14 receptions, Bucks, 70 yards, two touchdowns. Absolutely killed it. Joe Burrow with another three touchdown, almost 400 yard game. [00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah. They showed a stat I think second quarter that the Bengals this season scoring 30 plus points are two and four. [00:05:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:54] Speaker B: The rest of the league scoring 30 more points in a game is 85 and six. [00:06:03] Speaker A: I thought the Cowboys did pretty decent. They got some guys back. Lamb had a pretty good game. I think I mentioned this before. Cowboys could have laid this season, you know, laid down already for the rest of the season. But I think they've been playing pretty well with McCarthy. I kind of have a feeling that he's going to be sticking around a little longer. What do you guys say? I don't know. [00:06:24] Speaker C: I was just gonna ask you the same question. I don't feel the Online buzz around McCarthy is as bad as it may have been in past years. I don't know if the Cowboy fans have just checked out in the season and we're just. We're just so. We're just. [00:06:38] Speaker A: No, they're checked out. Yeah. [00:06:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:39] Speaker C: I'm just gonna let the guy having a pass because generally they'd be in a winning record and they'd lose like a tight divisional game and be like, we need to fire this guy. He's not going to do anything. But I haven't heard nearly the buzz around dismissing him as head coach. I believe his contract's up at the end of this season. [00:06:57] Speaker A: So it's been a lame duck here. [00:06:58] Speaker C: Yeah. So I've been a resigning. Don't have many of those. Generally. There's usually a vote of confidence and an extension or not. So it'll be interesting to see what Jerry does. The head coaching position in Dallas has always been kind of a roller coaster. It sounds a good job. [00:07:17] Speaker A: Is it? Not really. It's never good enough. You're never good enough. [00:07:25] Speaker C: It'll never be good enough. [00:07:26] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, Jerry Jones, behind the scenes, the guy's nuts. [00:07:29] Speaker C: The person who wins there is just gonna. Is gonna be a legend. But I mean, that's. That's the incentive to take the job. But yeah, high expectations, but no, I don't know. They. They have had the roster in a lot of years to potentially take the next step, and they never have been able to. And now the team's probably in a cycle where it's as bad as it has been in the last five years, where they don't really have, you know, a running back, you know, of note, they paid a bunch of money to Lamb and Prescott. Their. Their offensive line, which is a strength for quite a long time, is. Is getting older. The defense not as good as it maybe it once was, and you lose Dan Quinn, and maybe that was holding things together. So a lot of question marks in Dallas, but it'll be an interesting off season for them. [00:08:21] Speaker A: The two teams that had the biggest holdouts this past off season, Dallas Cowboys and the 49ers. They've had seasons of hell, yeah. Wasn't really lost on me. [00:08:31] Speaker B: 49Ers. 49ers are still in the mix. Big, big Thursday night game against the Rams coming up. Yeah, get that cheap. Get that when you get back to 560 bucks to go. I mean, Dallas, Mike McCarthy. Yeah. I mean, he is a lame duck, it looks like, but, you know, Jerry's kind of put some conference behind him the last few weeks. Like Jason was saying, like, when expectations were high, it seemed like if he would lose to the 49ers, everybody wanted him out. Then the team starts sucking. He wins two games ago. Wait, maybe we shouldn't get rid of this guy. [00:09:03] Speaker A: After all, they've been playing pretty competitive. [00:09:05] Speaker B: You know, if that guy doesn't make play on that punt, they likely get a field goal and win this game. [00:09:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:11] Speaker C: So. [00:09:11] Speaker A: Yeah, you're absolutely right. [00:09:13] Speaker B: And that'd be three in a row and you're six and seven. If you told me the Cowboys would be six and seven, we'd say that's pretty damn good. Given what they've been doing. [00:09:20] Speaker A: That's pretty good. Yeah. Considering the season they've been having. Yeah. I'm actually kind of impressed. You know, I'm not having a lot of fun this year, though, because I really like making fun of Cowboys fans and I haven't had a chance to, like, send as many zingers their way. You know who you are. Half of LA is a Cowboy fan, I think. Right. [00:09:37] Speaker C: The Cowboys fans that are Lakers fans, that are Yankees fans. [00:09:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not me. Ain't me cool. As I mentioned, I was at a Christmas party Saturday night. Should we just talk about college football first? [00:09:54] Speaker C: That was the most entertaining thing of the weekend. [00:09:56] Speaker A: That was great. It was. It was a great games, I guess we'll circle back to that. I definitely want to talk some college football, but I don't know, biggest, I don't know victory that kind of stuck out for you guys over the weekend. [00:10:09] Speaker B: Biggest victory. I would say Seattle going into Arizona and putting a whipping on them. I didn't see that one coming. [00:10:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And did we pick the cards? I can't remember who we had. [00:10:23] Speaker B: Jason, I think had Seattle. The rest of us had Arizona. Arizona came out, first drive, got a touchdown. Looked like it was gonna be a strong showing. And from there on out, Jason's the. [00:10:33] Speaker A: Only one that has Seattle. Yeah, we all took Arizona. Got duped again, dude. [00:10:38] Speaker B: I mean, I thought. [00:10:38] Speaker A: Duped again. [00:10:39] Speaker B: I thought Arizona was a lock this week. As soon as they scored that first touchdown, I was like, man, they're looking good. And then it was just all downhill from there. Big win for Seattle. Keeps that cushion right now that is maybe make us look smart if they do win the division and get that one right. So I guess there is a plus in that one. [00:10:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to say I. I took the Seattle lead from you guys at the preseason. This was the sneaky team of the year. And you guys, you guys bailed and. [00:11:06] Speaker A: I now just for one game. [00:11:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:09] Speaker B: But I mean this win, I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be billing again on him this weekend. I can tell you that already. [00:11:14] Speaker A: Who they play? [00:11:16] Speaker B: Packers. [00:11:17] Speaker A: Ah, I don't know what to think about the packers, man. I really don't. I think they might be the worst 9 and 4 team out there. [00:11:27] Speaker B: I think they could be the worst. They could be Packers. Kind of weird because it'd be the most overrated. Like you mentioned Rome or maybe the most underrated where they can sneak in here and get matchups that favor them. [00:11:38] Speaker A: They're still one of the youngest teams in the. In the league. Love is still learning on the job. Right. Is like real rookie season. Throws dumb interceptions. But you kind of like the gambles he takes. They have lots of talent. They have good running game, good wide receivers, pretty solid defense, a great coach. But I just don't know what to make of the team though. It's a hodgepodge. [00:12:04] Speaker C: I'm. I'm always skeptical of the packers, but that's just a Chicago Bears fans bias. And out of the three teams because just remove the Bears from the. The equation. Out of the three teams at the. [00:12:14] Speaker A: NSC north killing it the rest of the NFL. [00:12:17] Speaker C: Yeah, they are and I would say they're the most suspect. But I wanted to bring up the Three teams because I saw this on X today the Lions, packers and Vikings 20 are 28 and three against the rest of the NFL. So that's outside of games where they're not playing each other. So it's, it's a wild status. We touted the NSC north as the best division in football. Not the way I thought about it at the beginning of the year albeit I thought the Vikings were the worst but still. But when you look at those three teams where they're at you can't discount what the packers have done. The Vikings in one score games have been, you know, next level. If you flip these results the other way it wouldn't be, you know, wouldn't be the same. But can't deny and how they've come down the stretch and they've won a lot of these close games. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Speaking of Vikings, they dominated man. They beat the out the Falcons and darn was getting a lot of love this weekend. [00:13:14] Speaker B: A lot of love. A lot of love, man. I mean yeah, I mean Kirk Cousins came back there, played okay. Yeah showed a little, showed a little better performance this time than he did against the Chargers the week before. [00:13:26] Speaker A: But is this four straight games lost Falcons or three? [00:13:32] Speaker B: At least three because they lost at Denver. They went to the buy and then the Chargers and then Vikings here. So at least three in a row. [00:13:40] Speaker A: Four? [00:13:41] Speaker B: Has it been four? [00:13:42] Speaker A: They lost the Saints or that game 2017. [00:13:46] Speaker B: I do remember that game. [00:13:47] Speaker A: And they lost the Broncos. They got manhandled by the Broncos, Broncos destroyed them. And that's when I got me thinking like oh the Broncos are actually pretty talented. [00:13:54] Speaker B: That's when you guys finally came around. [00:13:55] Speaker A: A buzz came around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I, you know Bonix is like really starting to get a, you know, a little leg up on that rookie of the year award. Then they lost the Chargers 1317 and then Vikings. Not a good stretch. [00:14:11] Speaker C: Yeah, well you. Aaron says Cousins played better but he still threw two interceptions and no touchdowns in the last four games in the skid they're on. He's got no touchdown passes and eight interceptions. [00:14:24] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:14:26] Speaker C: I still think it's time for Penix at this point for the Falcons. They got to consider making this, making the switch and see what Penix can do here at the end of the season. I was high on the, on the Falcons at the beginning of the year. You guys all know that too much talent but they've been a disappointment and basically let the division slip away from them and not they signed to look for the next season at this point because they're not, they're not catching the Buccaneers, they're not making the playoffs. [00:14:52] Speaker B: So I'm not, I'm not ready to throw on the flag yet on Atlanta. They've got Vegas. They lose that game at Vegas, they're done. But they got Vegas at home against the Giants, at the Commanders, at home against Caroline. They should win three of these final four. [00:15:07] Speaker A: That's kind of tricky. [00:15:08] Speaker B: I think Tampa's gonna get beat by the Chargers and then tiebreaker goes to Atlanta. They beat him twice early in the year. Yeah, so. But I agree with Jason. If Cousins loses this week, you gotta pull him and bring Penck in and see what you got from the last three games because you got nothing. Really too much to lose there. [00:15:25] Speaker A: Why not? What does this mean for Cousins, though? Like, he's on a big contract. [00:15:33] Speaker C: It's interesting for how many years and guaranteed money they invested in him. So cutting him probably has a huge cap liability. So they're not doing that. But the Falcons drafted Penix for a reason. That's at a certain point, he is the quarterback of the future. It's just how long do you want to prolong this future? If they don't, if they're. I would say, though, if they don't do it this week, at least once you get to a point the past couple weeks of the season when you're clinched not going to be in the playoffs, you got to consider getting him some reps and at least, you know, give him some game time out there that, that Cousins doesn't need. And then you go into the off season. But Cousins has not looked like what you paid him so far, especially these last four games when it's been crucial and they could have ran away with the division. Those two wins against Tampa that Aaron mentioned early on, you know, should have been like, should have been the deal breaker for them to win this division. And now they have just let all these teams walk over them the past couple weeks. That should have been some winnable games. And offensively they have just not put it together. And the, the turnovers we talked about from Cousins is a chief reason why. [00:16:38] Speaker A: Sam Donald, real quick, getting some MVP talk. Love this past weekend. Five touchdowns, almost 350 yards. We were kind of. You've been extra critical of him, Jason. Earlier in the season, we kind of show him a little bit of love, but I do not see them being 11 and 2. They even had some tough wins, games that they should have lost. But that's what you want out of a good Team. Right. But Minnesota has now done this with Cousins. Now they're turning around Darnold's career. Does Darnold stay next year? Is that a possibility? Because I'm guessing like he works with this offense, with this coach, but who's gonna like maybe over bid for him and he's not gonna be able to replicate the results. [00:17:22] Speaker C: The quarterback market is going to be interesting because start listing the teams that are going to need, need a quarterback. The Raiders to me are just top of mind. You know maybe you're thinking the Titans if they're gonna part way with Levis, but I mean he's only really gotten you know, a year under his belt. What are you looking at? [00:17:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:41] Speaker C: And you still have an unknown. They drafted J.J. mcCarthy, but it's still an unknown. So do you make him wait a couple more years and you know, let Darnold go, continue to have the job and just have McCarthy as the backup the same way the packers have done with Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love before him. Like hey, we have a guy we drafted capable backup. Let him sit behind, get the reps in practice, you know, come in a game or two. If Darnold, you know, has a, has a small injury and needs to sit out. It's an interesting, you know, teams that don't have a solid backup quarterback can't do it for cap reasons or whatever. Look at the Dolphins. Look at the Dolphins for example. They, you know, had no really plan behind TUA from a person that was going to be the starter. [00:18:27] Speaker A: It's amazing. [00:18:28] Speaker C: Yeah. As soon as they as to it got hurt. They're bringing in Huntley and then he's immediately starting over the guy that they chose to be the backup. So depending on what you're doing from a cap situation and what you want, you know, a rookie quarterback as a backup is a good viable option to have. I guess for Darnold it comes to like what's, what's kind of deals he command. If you're telling me he's putting together, you know, maybe fringe MVP consideration right now. Six in the league in passing yards, third tie for third and touchdowns. Like impressive campaign. [00:19:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:00] Speaker C: But on, on the positive I was or I don't know if it's on the positive. Justin Jefferson and now you got Jordan Addison make things a lot easier for a quarterback. So is it, you know, Darnold's doing his thing but are those results transferable when J.J. mcCarthy gets in the lineup and you're gonna just take your chances on the person you drafted? [00:19:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean Minnesota, Darnold, he's having a great year, but what is he going to demand? What is he going to want on the open market? Is he going to take a team friendly deal? Similar what we saw Baker Mayfield do of Tampa where It's like a three year, 100 million, you know, 60 million guaranteed. And then we see what happens. [00:19:42] Speaker A: These guys strike me as like more like family guys. They're just looking for a home. They want to feel valued, you know, they're not like Juan Soto. Big massive contract that you just got, that's gonna be great. [00:19:55] Speaker C: We can talk, we can talk about that later on. [00:19:57] Speaker B: And there's no cap in baseball. So I mean if, what would you pay? I mean if there was no cap in football, Mahomes would be probably getting a billion dollars right now. Let's just be realistic. [00:20:08] Speaker C: I just don't know the destination room. That's the biggest thing. If you were to leave Minnesota, go, go through the teams and like what would be the quarterback market? Like AFC east, you got Josh Allen, you got Tua. The jets are an option, but Sam Darnold ain't going back to the Jets. I was like, he already ruined the first bat for. He's not going to go there. The Patriots just, just drafted a quarterback. The Steelers could have been a question mark for you, but hey, you found something with, with Russell, maybe you're bringing Fields back, I don't know. But that's an unlikely spot. Baltimore, Cincinnati don't need a quarterback. Cleveland maybe, but we've had all this conversation about desean Watson in the cap hit because if they cut him or don't play him, they basically, that's half their cap space for, you know, future years. Houston doesn't need a quarterback. The Colts have Richardson. I don't, I don't know if they're moving on that quickly afterward. [00:20:57] Speaker A: Not yet. [00:20:58] Speaker C: The Jags just tied up. Jags, well, they just tied up Trevor Lawrence. [00:21:02] Speaker B: They just signed to a deal. [00:21:03] Speaker A: So why was it dumb contract by the way. I think I sent you Jason. [00:21:07] Speaker B: What about the Saints? [00:21:09] Speaker A: Saints house? [00:21:10] Speaker C: How far is Cars contract for then? I mean that's two years in at this point. [00:21:15] Speaker B: I think they can move off them. I, I heard, I heard rumors. I mean, he's out for the year. He's been hurt, he's been banged up. I heard they're looking to move off him. [00:21:23] Speaker C: I mean like the Saints could be an option. The Raiders, like I said, I mentioned before and maybe, and I said the Titans, that'd be the three that maybe pop in That I could see moving on. But everybody else is like for the most part set at their current guy or have a future guy in waiting, like right behind. And then you're gonna have a couple quarterbacks in the draft too. So I mean, who's going to be trying to get, you know, it's not a, it's not, it's not the class that we had last year. But there's still a couple guys are going to be first round that people are going to want. [00:21:52] Speaker B: Well, the Raiders are going to need a quarterback like Jason mentioned. It's just a matter of do they get first pick in the draft or third and go Cam Ward or Shadir Saunders or do they say let's take a chance on Sam Darnold? I mean, if you can get a stud rookie quarterback on a rookie contract, it's better. Given what those teams have for holes, do they want to waste money on Darnold? I think for Darnold, what kind of impact is he going to have in the playoffs? That's the big question. We talked about the Giants given Daniel Jones a contract. He had a good regular season that first year. [00:22:23] Speaker A: Oh, good play off. [00:22:24] Speaker B: Didn't. Didn't do too well in the playoffs. He did win a playoff game and he looked, he looked bad against Philadelphia. But everybody did against Philadelphia that year. Yeah, and it was all downhill from there. And then again, how close was the quarterback battle between him and J.J. mcCarthy? You know, there wasn't a quarterback announced as a starter and then JJ got hurt. Meniscus out for the year. Darnold stepped in, so who knows how close that battle was. [00:22:50] Speaker A: Speaking of quarterbacks, you guys catch the Bills Rams game? I think I called a potential upset on that one. [00:22:57] Speaker C: I didn't, I didn't see it. Obviously I was at Levi Stadium watching the Niners destroy the Bears. But that was definitely a game. As I was checking scores in stadium, I was like, oh, I was kind of shocked by the Bills not showing up there in the first half and then all of a sudden, oh, they made a game of it. [00:23:13] Speaker B: So very entertaining game. That was a very entertaining game if you liked offense. And that's what we had, offense. No sacks, no turnovers. Just felt like a college game, man. It felt like a college game. No huddle, just keep it going and get the pace going. Highest scoring game of the season I believe as well between two teams combined. [00:23:34] Speaker A: Really? It topped the one from the Steelers game last week. [00:23:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that was 44. What? 38. This one was 44. [00:23:40] Speaker A: 42 outs here at the end of the season, Steelers bald. The Jets Dolphins game looked entertaining. Do you have any thoughts on that, Aaron? [00:23:51] Speaker B: Yeah, man. That was the best I've seen Rogers look all year. I'm not going to lie. It's his first 300 yard passing game. He's a member of the Jet and since what I think first since like 2022 they said yeah, 35 games I think he went interesting. It got me thinking because last week we were talking about where's the. Where's the destination for Rogers, where could he end up And I, I started thinking after the show and Jason had just mentioned it. Right now Miami doesn't have a backup plan for tua. Would Aaron Rodgers go as a backup quarterback to the Miami Dolphins and sit behind knowing that two is one hit away? That offense is all quick passing. You ain't got to be moving immobile. I think Rogers is fitting good there if it's a potential. If he wants to go and be a backup in this league, the Miami Dolphins I think is the possible destination for him. [00:24:40] Speaker A: I don't think their O line's good enough for Rogers. [00:24:43] Speaker B: It's not any worse than the Jets. [00:24:46] Speaker A: True. I guess that's interesting take. [00:24:49] Speaker C: I don't think it's a bad fit what Aaron's talking about with the quick passing game getting into your skill players in open space. I just don't think from an ego standpoint Rogers is ever going to accept a backup role at this time. [00:25:02] Speaker A: Yeah, especially a guy who gets concussions by just a tap of a finger. Any other thoughts on Week 14 in the NFL? [00:25:15] Speaker B: I think Eagles, man, we all love the Eagles. That was a game they should have lost. Yeah, to Carolina. [00:25:22] Speaker A: Young's doing well. I'm really happy for him. [00:25:24] Speaker B: Young's doing well. Carolina, I mean they keep getting these high points spread. I'm going to jump on the bandwagon. I know Jason and you guys jumped on them this week. That number was really high. Yeah, I was suspicious about all along but Carolina literally should have probably beaten the two teams favor to get to the super bowl in Kansas City and the Eagles here in the last three weeks they had them both beat and yeah, they should have won all four of these games early. [00:25:48] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll keep talking about Bryce Young, but the benching. A lot of people were all over the Panthers for what they were doing and there's been a lot of dysfunction with the Panthers since David Tepper has bought them and what they've gone through from a quarterback perspective but giving him some time, you know to sit back, let Dalton play within the offense. And then once he got his shot, even with no really established number one receivers, it was. I think that game in London was all just a bunch of, you know, recently drafted guys or free agents that they had. And they've had, they've had the success. They've kept games close. You know, they're starting to build something there. Yeah, the number was way too big, you know, but very impressive performance. [00:26:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Other than that, I was just pissed to see that the Chiefs won by another miracle. Good for them. [00:26:41] Speaker C: I had. I had a friend. I was sitting at the airport in San Jose waiting for my flight to come back home. And right before we're boarding, we just see the end of this game and, you know, hits the post, goes in and my friend just said even when they lose, they win. And just like it makes no sense as a quote, but it's absolutely right. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Oh, it's just one of those seasons. Yeah. Pretty impressive. [00:27:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:10] Speaker A: I got nothing else. It was kind of like a slow week for me. I feel kind of slow right now. Take a break. We come back some college football. [00:27:18] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:27:25] Speaker A: Time for a little college football. We had conference championships this past weekend starting Friday night. I think that was the Boise State game. Right. You know, via Boise State, not. You guys seem to watch a lot that game, right? [00:27:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:41] Speaker A: You guys are chaining Genti for Heisman. [00:27:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:46] Speaker C: Big first half. Don't think he'll win it. I think we get that a little later with the Heisman finalists. Hunter seems like the going away odds on favor to win it with. And you know, in all Big 12 offensive and defensive year he put together. But Gen Z put together one of the best running back seasons of all time, I think. I don't know, Aaron, you can correct me as far as what he was behind, but I think only Barry Sanders for the all time single season. [00:28:18] Speaker B: But yeah, I think he's only. I think he's like only 128 yards behind him now after that 200 plus performance against UNLV in that. The Mountain west championship game. [00:28:30] Speaker C: Yeah, 209 yards rushing. Boise State really put on him in the first half. They're up 21 nothing at the half. I know we, we were texting pretty much at that point. Didn't do any much offensively. The second half just pretty much controlled the clock. UNLV was able to score a touchdown in the fourth quarter and kind of seemed like they were coming back. But the Boise State defense held true and you know, they're on. They knew that that point they were clinched the first round by. [00:28:57] Speaker A: I caught the first half that didn't watch so much the second. But the games on Saturday were pretty entertaining. Arizona State came out and played. I fucking love that game. They looked really solid. And I read. I can't remember what I was reading today. Well, I was on my two day recovery from Saturday night's Christmas party. But the irony that USC UCLA tore apart the PAC 12, you know because they didn't want to compete with, you know, guys like asu and here you have ASU in the playoff and not usc. Kind of funny. [00:29:33] Speaker C: Yeah. USC and UCLA not competing very well in their first year in the Big Ten in Arizona State coming their first year in the Big 12 and win it. Yeah winning it. And really they'll down the stretch. Just impressive down the stretch and who they beat and just a dominant performance in the. In the Big 12 championship game. I was hoping a little more probably I picked Arizona State. We'll get into the Clemson SMU game though. But it was going into, you know that game Arizona State was ranked 12. SMU was at that slotted in to get the first round by. I was very curious from a committee selection standpoint jumping into Arizona State showing this performance. If SMU would have won the ACC championship game would Arizona State bounced Boise State for the first round by. It was really all coming down to that. But that was what it was. Kind of in the back of my mind as I was going through the ACC championship game. It's like does Arizona State jump to this first round by and you kick that, you know, Group of 5 team Boise State out of it which everyone had pencil didn't going into. Didn't. Didn't materialize. But that's what the one thing I was thinking as I was watching how dominant Arizona State was because like they were ranked 12 and it was like okay, they're going to be down on the list I think. Or overall it might have been like 16th but in the. In the the Brat the first bracket last week they were in 12 and yeah I, I was like big man, they could get the buy out of this if SF and SMU comes comes through. But obviously they didn't and it really shuffled everything up. [00:31:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't catch the end of the Clemson SMU game. I think that's when I finally arrived at a Christmas party and that was the end of my weekend. [00:31:18] Speaker C: Officially arrived or was taken away from the Christmas party at that time. [00:31:21] Speaker A: I think I was taken away. [00:31:23] Speaker B: Okay, maybe mix them both there arriving it Might have been getting taken away from one go arriving at another somewhere. [00:31:31] Speaker A: I was somewhere. But man, it was, it was a weird game for me because I, I just figured, you know, maybe smu, like it's like their first time in a big game like that. They just kind of looked a little, you know, out of their zone. Right. So I didn't want to discredit their team too much and say like, Clemson is this much better. But I'm glad they got back into the game at the end, made it competitive and they made it into the playoff, which I correctly called. [00:31:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, smu. I didn't see any of this game either, Rome, because I was at my Christmas party as well. So I did listen a little bit on the radio. I did, I did put the end of the game on the phone, but yeah, Clemson jumped out to an early lead. Pretty much was in control two score lead going into the fourth quarter. SMU was down what, 3,000, 121 came back, tied it. You know, I was, we were watching the game on my phone there at the Christmas party and was with my roommate there and we're like, dude, SMU should just go for two here. Yeah, just go for, go for the win. Like if you want to, if you want to play off birth, it's right here in front of you. Go get it. Yeah, they didn't. Clemson goes down. Freshman kicker, I believe. 56 yarder at the, at the horn and he nails it. I wouldn't have pit SMU in the playoff, but, you know, I, I got no problem Alabama being out. They should have been out last year. Karma's a. I love it. [00:32:53] Speaker A: I love it. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Roll tide. You get Michigan again. Good for you guys. [00:32:58] Speaker A: I haven't looked at the bowl games yet. I guess we should probably review that at some point. I just saw that they announced a Heisman finalist earlier tonight. I totally missed that one as well. I've been like in a weird, weird coma. Just like having cup of noodles, drinking water, rehydrating and regretting my decisions this past weekend. [00:33:16] Speaker B: Is it just the two Heisman finalists, Jinty and Hunter? [00:33:19] Speaker A: There's four. [00:33:20] Speaker B: Okay, those are just the two headlines. Who's the other one? [00:33:24] Speaker C: Dylan Gabriel. [00:33:25] Speaker B: Okay, so they didn't, they didn't pitch Scattabo from Arizona State. I heard he was getting a lot of love hearing that game. [00:33:31] Speaker A: He looked great. [00:33:32] Speaker B: Where's. He got 19 total touchdowns, I think this year. Yeah, he had a big game. [00:33:36] Speaker A: Small guy, just bulldozer to everybody. I loved it. [00:33:40] Speaker B: Scattable's tough man. That dude's a truck. Yeah, he'll play on Sundays in the NFL. He'll probably go. A guy that gets drafted like middle late rounds probably. He's. He's gonna be a steal if he ever gets a man, that guy, that guy plays hard. [00:33:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I loved it. Penn State, Oregon. That was really well, that was entertaining. Looked like Oregon was really controlling. And then Penn State came back and fought. I thought that was a good showing for them. And then we were all texting regarding Georgia, Texas. Texas left a lot of points on the board in the first half. And I was like, this is gonna bite them in the ass. The fact that Georgia was only down. What was it like? What, what was it? 93 or 6 3? I can't remember. A couple missed field goals. Uncharacteristic of Texas. Yours. He was like Heisman, you know, Earl, early favorites, you know, round one quarterback. He doesn't look like a round one quarterback to me. Didn't play great. I thought they should have brought out Manning, used his some athleticism. He has a rocket arm as well, a little stronger. But it is what it is. It was a good game. And Georgia took it in overtime because Texas. I don't like the play calling at the end of that game. It was really fucking weird. [00:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean Texas, Texas. Interestingly, man, they tried running the ball against Georgia. I thought they tried to run it too much. And they got behind the sticks a lot of times. 3rd and 12, 3rd and 14 obvious pass downs. And in the second half it really came back to bite them. [00:35:16] Speaker A: It did. [00:35:16] Speaker B: It was like you mentioned, he made some big throws in the first half. A lot of one on one, kind of 50, 50 balls like Texas was coming down with. Georgia dropped two picks in that game themselves. A weird game. But it went how I thought. Texas is one of the most talented teams from a skills point. Players, running backs, tight ends, wide receivers. Easily one of the most talented teams in the country. But it comes down to their own line. They can be bullied. And Georgia came back again, bullied them on the defensive line. And then their offensive line started getting that run game going. I mean they, they brought in a quarterback who had never been in a game and how much he didn't have a three touchdown lead. He only throw for 60 yards and almost threw the game away with a stupid pick at the end trying to get Texas into the. Into the first round. By and of all that Georgia still beat him. I'll stand by it. The committee did Texas a favor by the seating. I Think they're gonna have a tough matchup when they get to Arizona State. We'll talk about seating as we go on, but if Texas had actually played a real SEC schedule, they would not make the playoff, and I'll stand by that this season. [00:36:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it's pretty ballsy take. Yeah. Etienne. Is that as I hear, pronounced his name, really fast. That guy really broke down for some really nice runs. Etn his brothers. [00:36:33] Speaker C: They're running back for the Jags. [00:36:35] Speaker A: Yeah, guys, really talented, man. It was great. I thought Georgia, their backup quarterback, when he came in, he was just a lot more mobile. Had some great plays. Guy played and the team rallied around him. I thought it was great viewers. Two interceptions, had yards, but it was a really wishy washy game and I don't know, I, I gotta imagine that's going to affect his draft stock, but can't wait to see this team with Manning next year. They'll be good. That's gonna be a fun team to watch. I do think they're a playoff team, so I'm really happy that they made it in. [00:37:08] Speaker C: He's already looking forward to next year. [00:37:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, no, I think Texas is a playoff team, but if, I mean, they played only two of the top eight teams in the SEC standings. [00:37:20] Speaker A: Yeah, we heard it before, dude. [00:37:21] Speaker B: And Georgia. They lost twice to Georgia. The other one was Texas A M, who we all know right now is a train wreck, having lost three of their last four and has a true freshman playing quarterback the last six games. If they had played a schedule similar to a Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, they'd easily have another loss on their schedule and likely out of the playoff. [00:37:45] Speaker A: All right, let's take a look at the playoff. What do you guys think about the seating and everything? I'm trying to pull it up. I just want to see like a nice bracket picture. I don't, I don't want to read anything right now. I'm too slow. [00:37:56] Speaker C: I, I would say it's a biased take for me. Like Notre dame not being 5 over Texas was suspect to me right away. You had, you know, it's your team versus my team here, Rome, but you had two losses for Texas. Aaron talked about their quote unquote, strength of schedule in the sec. I know everyone's on Notre Dames of whatever their strengths of schedule is, but they did play, you know, army and Navy, teams that, you know, were ranked, won the conference. You had Louisville, who they played, beat. They, they demolished Georgia Tech, who took Georgia to the limit from Notre Dame. So if we're Doing transient property stuff, which the SEC fans like to do all the times like that. So I think Notre Dame and they're being held accountable for that loss to Northern Illinois. I get it. It's a bad loss. That was the one that kind of stuck out to me the most. The rest of the seating don't. I really didn't have a problem with overall, given, you know, where the teams kind of shook out to. I think the out the team outside looking in. We already kind of talked about the Alabama aspect. I think that was probably the most controversial thing of what was going to happen. But the odds make. The odds makers had that out right away last night that even when, when Clemson won, they still had SMU as the favorite to get in. [00:39:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I do remember reading. I was like, oh, wow, let's make making quite the turn here. [00:39:23] Speaker C: Which I think is warranty because SMU had a great season. And you know, I sound, I sound like saying the same things over and over about these conference title games though, and this being the first year at it. How are you going to reward or punish the team for losing an extra game that other teams outside the playoff don't have to play? Well, the precedent's kind of set now is like if you, if you had an incredible year but lose the conference title game, you could still be in the playoff. And that. And that was true for SMU and this and that for Texas and I. And I think it's the right thing to do. Alabama had some bad losses and the selection show. I don't know if you guys watched that the morning of. I don't watch the whole thing, but one once they came. Oh yeah, Rome was. [00:40:06] Speaker A: Rome was. [00:40:07] Speaker B: I did watch it. [00:40:08] Speaker A: I was pass out on the roof. [00:40:10] Speaker C: Apparently the narrative on ESPN already was, it started with Nick Saban and others on the conference was like, they don't like the seating property properly. You shouldn't. They shouldn't just automatically give buys out to conference champions. It's got to be the four best teams in the country. And that's. I don't think so because this is where you get this SEC and Big Ten potentially bias into like, oh, we need two or three teams that are having first round buys in this stuff. And I disagree. Like, if you're going to have these big conferences and mean something to the conference and these other conferences just going in the wins, they deserve something for winning their conference too. Which sec at this point, I think they're the best conference in America, but they aren't far and away the best conference in America anymore. NIL has made all of these other teams much better in college football is much deeper across the board. And you saw it with the flaws and all these teams resumes in the SEC particular. And so, you know, you, you got Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss. He should have won the games to be into the playoff. And they're complaining my strength to schedule this and strength that. And there was some bad losses in there because Ole Miss lost to. Lost to Kentucky. [00:41:19] Speaker B: Yes. [00:41:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Who. Louisville destroyed Kentucky out of the 41. [00:41:24] Speaker B: 417 in the year. [00:41:26] Speaker C: So Louisville destroys Kentucky, who beats Ole Miss. But then Louisville who's, you know, lost to Miami and they lost to Notre Dame. And so you, you tout your schedules in this different way. I think there's just a lot of things in college football and it was already in that pregame show. I think Saban said it. I don't want to misquote it, but I was like, oh, there's no incentive to go play a hard game out of conference this and that. Well, you know what, most of these SE teams don't. They're playing Mercer or Colgate or whoever else in their out of conference schedule. They don't play a hard out of conference schedule. So when you look at, you know, Texas, I'll give Texas this. They scheduled Michigan early on. They didn't know Michigan was going to be who they were. So they at least are trying to play harder. [00:42:05] Speaker B: Michigan. [00:42:05] Speaker A: And on a good note, by the way. Yeah, okay, it's a solid NFL team there. [00:42:11] Speaker C: We talked about that last week. But yeah, there's already some stuff that they're going to try to rear in the. Rearrange the playoff. I didn't, I didn't like that aspect of it because, you know, now we're trying to get greedy of like, no, go win your conference and you get rewarded with the first round by. I don't need four SEC teams getting a first round buy and oh, we can't beat each other. No. Win your conference and make the conference championship game mean something and actually make the regular season that you're touting so much is so big mean something too. Because if everyone in the SEC is just going to get a first round buy because of their strength of schedule, then now the college football purists that say the regular season doesn't mean, you know, mean as much now. Well, it really doesn't. If I could have two losses in the sec, but I'm one of the best team kids in the country, but I'll get a First round buy over a team that possibly went undefeated or had one loss in a different conference. [00:42:58] Speaker A: Well, you know, I don't think Boise State deserves the number with reseed. I think that's a little high for them. Yeah, I mean, that's a little too much. [00:43:05] Speaker B: Personally, I'm in agreeance with top teams. Should get top seeds and get the buy. If you win your conference championship, you shouldn't. If you win your conference championship, you're guaranteed a spot into the top 12. Yeah, but I want to give them a first round buy. [00:43:20] Speaker A: Right. [00:43:21] Speaker B: As far as seating goes, I agree with Jason. I would have pit Notre Dame 5 over Texas. I would have done that. And I'm looking at the seating. I don't get how you have Penn State 6, Ohio State 8. They beat them head to head, and then you bring Clemson in, you pit them 12 and SMU 11. In my blind, didn't just Clemson beat you guys the night before, like 12 hours earlier? [00:43:44] Speaker C: Sure. [00:43:44] Speaker B: That they'd be ahead of you in the seating. So it's kind of weird to me how the committee went about seeding teams here and, you know, talking about teams. But the committee, to their credit, which Jason been saying all year, if you got to your conference championship game and had one loss or less, they didn't punish you if you lost that game. [00:44:02] Speaker A: I like that. I like that. [00:44:04] Speaker B: So I, I do like that too, because, you know, there was all this talk about SMU claiming, hey, the whole team's got Covid, we can't play, and we automatically get a birth because we can't lose if we don't want to see that. [00:44:13] Speaker A: If SMU did not show up in the second half, we wouldn't be having this conversation. They would have been out. [00:44:18] Speaker B: Correct. [00:44:19] Speaker A: They. They had to show up and thank God they did because I really wanted them to still be in it. I thought if they lost, but it was a close game, they would still be in it. So I think, I think that's. [00:44:27] Speaker B: I think, like you just said, Rome, them having a good showing second half and making that game what is. Yeah. Because SMU to The credits lost two games this year, three points to Clemson, three points at BYU. Their top 25 teams, good losses. So they're good losses. So we'll see what happens. The playoff is here. I mean, Alabama, Jason mentioned they did have some bad losses. I mean, that Oklahoma loss just a few weeks ago, it stings. [00:44:54] Speaker A: If you're out one of the top 12 teams, you know, you can make the argument for Ole Miss maybe getting left out Same thing with South Carolina. If you had a 14 team playoff, like I would want those two teams in there. I think those are the only two teams. I think that would have like a valid argument to be in this thing. But everyone else, I'm pretty happy with who's in the playoff. [00:45:13] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, Mississippi, they've lost some game. South Carolina, they just beat Clemson. At Clemson, I mean, the big winner of not getting and playing a tough conference schedule is Indiana. Let's just be honest. I don't know how good Indiana is. [00:45:25] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:45:26] Speaker B: We don't know. [00:45:27] Speaker A: Don't know anything. [00:45:28] Speaker B: Any team that's average, below average, they've beaten the bricks off of. To their credit, they played one good team, Ohio State, and got beat bad. They now get the playoff game against Notre Dame. I love Notre Dame in that game. Yeah, I think Notre Dame, given we haven't talked about it, but Carson Beck of Georgia, what's his health going forward? Notre Dame I think's got a good chance to get into that Final Four now. They're going to give Georgia a game once they get there in that quarterfinal matchup. [00:45:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I was just gonna say they said Carson Beck, there's no timetable for his return right now. So the backup's probably, definitely going to be playing in Georgia's first game at the Sugar Bowl. And as much as I was complaining a little bit about by Notre Dame not getting the five seed or even the 60 versus Penn State, better for. [00:46:11] Speaker A: You, man, it's actually a really good path. [00:46:13] Speaker C: It is better because I think they may have the easiest first round opponent in Indiana potentially. And then you go into a Georgia, which I probably wouldn't, which I'm not thrilled about to begin with because of the trenches in Georgia. With what they were able to. Aaron just said they were able to beat up Texas in the trenches. And that's been Notre Dame's notorious weakness against, you know, SEC teams. But now you're playing a backup quarterback who really couldn't do anything in the entire game. If they have the running game going with Notre Dame, this is, this is a really good path for Notre Dame to get to Georgia. And then, then you're talking if they, if that advances. I'm getting way ahead of myself here. But then it's a Boise State versus Penn State winner. [00:46:50] Speaker A: Like this guy's getting wet right now. [00:46:52] Speaker B: Hey, hey, I like Notre Dame's pap too. [00:46:56] Speaker A: This guy's so giggly right now. Look at him. [00:46:58] Speaker C: Listen, we moved on from the Bears. The Blackhawks fired their Coach, the White Sox are terrible. Notre Dame is the one thing I can live on right now. [00:47:06] Speaker B: And Jason's praying Marcus Freeman doesn't leave for the Bears head coaching gig. He is definitely. [00:47:10] Speaker A: I would not take. Yeah, hopefully not. [00:47:12] Speaker C: He's not in consideration from the top four names that I saw listed in the Bears coaching search this morning. [00:47:17] Speaker B: So what's it getting paid over there at Notre Dame? What are they paying him? 7 and a half, 8 million a year? [00:47:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't know. Probably something like that. [00:47:23] Speaker B: That's not bad. [00:47:24] Speaker C: They'll give. They'll give him a raise. [00:47:26] Speaker B: He's getting a raise for sure. Especially if he beats Indiana in this playoff. If he gets to the Final Four, for sure. [00:47:31] Speaker A: What's interesting about the playoff thing is smu. Good team. We'll get another barometer of how good they really are. Penn State's pretty solid, but they've had. [00:47:40] Speaker B: Like some, I think, SMU's. If you're looking for an upset, I think SMU can go into Penn State and maybe win that game. They got the offensive weapons. It's just again, can they handle the physicality of a Penn State in the trenches? [00:47:53] Speaker A: I'm not confident. Boise State going past that one game. [00:47:58] Speaker B: Well, it's a neutral site game, so. [00:48:00] Speaker C: Yeah, neutral site. Fiesta Bull. So that should be in Glendale. [00:48:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:06] Speaker C: Boise State's had an upset in Glendale before at the Fiesta bowl. So it's on. It's on their record. If you turn back the clock. Was it Oklahoma? If I remember correctly, back in the day, they beat the Fiesta Bowl. I think. [00:48:17] Speaker B: I think they've even beaten TCU and Andy Dalton back in the day in that Fiesta bowl too. [00:48:22] Speaker C: Was it? Yeah. So they've had a. They've had a track record. I mean, Boise State. But I agree with you, Rome, that that was. That. That 611 game was probably the ideal slot you'd be wanting sitting at of your path to the championship game. Because Boise State was going to be, you know, the more vulnerable of the first round by teams. [00:48:41] Speaker A: Oh, for sure. [00:48:42] Speaker C: So a lot. A lot of close games in a Mountain West Conference that, you know, is not the strength of, you know, the other the major four conferences. But I agree with Aaron, like sm, you could be. Could definitely take out Penn State. The knock on James Franklin was can't win a big game. Two big games of the year. He lost both of them. You know, this is a big game now. It's time. Time for them to step up in this moment. [00:49:04] Speaker A: Yeah, George is a really shaky number two seed. I like the. I like Nordames chances of getting past them again. [00:49:12] Speaker B: I mean, here. The key to beating Georgia is you're not going to be more talented than Merli. I mean, Texas probably is a little bit more talented. You've got to be able to hang in the trenches for four quarters because Georgia's Georgia's dogs, man, they'll keep coming. I mean, Georgia Tech had them on the ropes and like Rocky, they fought back and got him. They got him. And then the same with Texas, man. Texas. Texas is ultra talented, has a legit defense. But they got, after that old line, took control of the game and they got that running game going like you said, Rome. And if you're going to beat Georgia, you got to go four quarters in battle. And it may even take overtime because Georgia's got a thrill for the overtime and they're going to play another overtime in the playoffs. I think it's like the sitting is. [00:49:55] Speaker A: A little weird to me. Like, why does the winner of Ohio State, Tennessee get to play Oregon? You know, I would imagine if Oregon's the number one seed, they would get a chance to play a lower seed. I'm not. I don't know. I'm not a big fan of the layout and going to asu, that's tough. They're just balling right now. That's gonna be a tough route. [00:50:16] Speaker B: I'm not sure where that was. It can be like an Orange bowl game. [00:50:19] Speaker C: Maybe Arizona State's, the Peach Bowl. So that'll be in Georgia, Georgia and Oregon's. Oregon's Rose Bowl. So you get. Or, you know, Ohio State at the Rose bowl, which, you know, you got. [00:50:31] Speaker B: Ohio State beating Tennessee then, huh? Confident pick. [00:50:35] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:50:36] Speaker C: I'm not there yet. I'm just saying the possibilities. I'm just saying the possibilities. But, yeah, no receding room. So I. I had a friend bring that up to me. It's like they should be receding after the first round in Oregon should be able to do the lowest seed. Yeah, advances. But this, I would say they don't do this because they want this March Madness style. You're gonna have like a bracket challenge and all sorts of crap that's going to be gambling on. So they're going to keep it practice and not have it like the NBA, which recedes after the first round. [00:51:05] Speaker B: I mean. Yeah, I mean, if you're looking at the matchup, I think Ohio State, Tennessee, that's. That's a heavyweight fight. I mean, Tennessee, they played a tough schedule. Ohio State's Play some tough games. Ryan Day, you know, if he could win a playoff game at home, whatever problems he's had with Michigan will go away for a few months at least. The noise will get quiet. You know, he's got a Michigan problem. But if he can get in the playoff consistently and he can start winning in the playoffs, that will go a long way. I, I don't see if Ohio State does win this game, beating Oregon. I think it's tough going to beat a team twice. I know for Oregon, but Oregon's playing strong. They're not going to sleep on whoever gets through here. I think Oregon will get to that Final Four and then we'll see what happens from there. But Arizona State, Texas, because Texas will beat Clemson. Clemson just doesn't have enough offense, I think, to beat them. Arizona State, they're going to be a dog for Texas. That'll be an interesting game if that is what the matchup becomes. [00:52:00] Speaker A: It would be interesting, actually. And depending on, I don't know, I just want to see Manning in there, I think gives the best chance. [00:52:08] Speaker C: You're not going to see it this year, but. No, you already talked 2025. That should be it. Going back to the season as a whole, though, there was a lot of worry with college football purists going into this season with the playoffs. What would change the sanctity of the, you know, the regular season for college football? For me, this is one of the most exciting regular season college footballs has had in a really long time. And I think that speaks to the strength of really what this playoff format offers because you had a ton of teams in the national conversation that in years past we would have not cared going into bull season. And I, and I got a couple of friends that are like bull purists and like the, you know, we end on the one thing and hey, for all the teams, not you can end on your bowl game. I'll be going to one of those games, the Holiday bowl down in San Diego. I am there every year, so I forgot who's in that game, but, but I'll be seeing that one. But the, the regular season to me has been entertaining because this jockeying for, you know, the different playoff spots, and we're not Talking about the 4 and 5 seed leaving out an undefeated, you know, Florida State team. We're getting a team like Boise State, which for, you know, years was never given the shot to win a national title because they weren't playing at the division, but they've had some undefeated teams and done and done so, well, they have a legit chance at this point, Boise State, to win a national title. You have a team that, hey, may have lost an early game in the season, that was a bad loss now to rebound and have a run down the stretch. And you had, you know, the SEC teams which had, you know, multiple different tough roads of their strength of schedule have a path to go to and win the national title too. So to me, this in recent memory, this is one of the best college football seasons there's been. [00:53:49] Speaker A: You might be biased because Notre Dame actually looks legit this year. So you're. [00:53:52] Speaker B: No, I mean this I agree because I mean, if we had four teams, I'm not even sure who the top four teams are in the country right now. I mean, if we had to pick four teams, who would be your number one through four seed? If you just had to. I Mean, Oregon Probably 1 and 2 is obvious, but who's 3? Who's 4? Is Notre Dame in your top 4? I probably might put them in there. [00:54:13] Speaker A: Dame is number four for me. [00:54:14] Speaker C: Yeah, they were ranked number four, I believe in the standings overall. [00:54:17] Speaker A: So they're the fourth best team in the country. I think right now you probably would. [00:54:20] Speaker C: Had Texas and Notre Dame, Oregon and. [00:54:25] Speaker A: Yeah, Texas would still be my top. [00:54:26] Speaker C: Georgia, but you wouldn't have these. You wouldn't have had Arizona State, wouldn't have cared about him. The ACC title game would have meant nothing. [00:54:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:34] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. [00:54:35] Speaker C: That entire last weekend really was meant a lot. [00:54:39] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it was a fun year. [00:54:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And we'll see if the playoff expands to 14 teams. You know, this is kind of what the SEC and the Big Ten have been trying to get it to. Fourteen teams with a guaranteed four teams from each of their conferences in so they can avoid an Alabama getting left out of the mix of that 12. The other. Give credit to the other conferences right now for not signing off on that deal. [00:55:01] Speaker A: Yeah, no, so honestly, I'm happy with the 12 right now. [00:55:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Complaints for me. [00:55:10] Speaker C: Yeah, Yeah, I am too. I, I don't know how you get to 14 and what that turns into with different buys and stuff. But yeah, 12's good. I'm guessing based on the conversations that were happening at espn, we will go into what you guys are talking about, probably going by the rankings versus conference championship stuff. That'll probably eventually happen based on the dialogue that's already starting because the SEC and Big Ten will probably push for that influence. [00:55:34] Speaker A: They'll probably push for a 16 team playoff. I think that's what the End result will be within five years. [00:55:39] Speaker B: I think so. And I think Saban brought up too why we're, I mean I know Jason said he watched it, you know, kind of going, we already kind of have it. But going like super conferences where it's just like only 40, 50 teams. You're the only teams playing for a playoff. Everybody kind of plays everybody to kind of eliminate like hey, this team didn't play anybody in the top 25 versus this team played five teams in the top 25. [00:56:05] Speaker A: D1 Football is going to look way different in, in the very near future. It's gonna, it's gonna be the NFL. You know, it'll be like the, it'll be like subdivisions like Division one. I strongly believe that. [00:56:15] Speaker C: And yeah, yeah, there's probably an argument. I don't know how they get around with the other sports that are not football, but with the NCAA as a governing body. Well, yeah, but from the NCAA as a governing body, do they get to a certain point where you know, they're trying to do a super league just like the European soccer clubs are trying to do at a certain point where like hey, sec, Big Ten, we don't need s, you know, NCAA governing body. We will decide it's national championship on our own. And if these other conferences get enough schools, they can maybe be part of it. But these are the rules. Like football is aiming towards that way where it's semi pro going professional football, you know, in a certain manner. I think it's just how you're going to handle the other sports and what the legalities behind that is probably going to be, you know, what will take years to figure out. But I agree with Aaron. You're going to get to some super conference status. Is this going to be which ones are going to left going to be left standing from a super conference perspective. [00:57:09] Speaker B: And to the point to the acc, I mean the ACC had a down year this year. All these conferences, they're going to have ups and down swings. I mean Clemson, smu, SMU is kind of ahead of schedule. I mean no one expected to be the first year in the ACC to be this good. They're on a, they're on a nine year contract. They're not even getting any ACC TV revenue money for the first nine years. They just wanted to get into the conference so they could have a shot to basically get into a college football playoff. But look at Georgia Tech's getting better, Louisville's good in the conference, Florida State will be back, Miami's back. Right now the ACC is Going to have five to six teams going forward, three to four power teams, another five to six total that are going to be competitive playing against each other that are going to kind of even out this strength of schedule, strength of victories going forward. [00:57:57] Speaker C: I think, yeah, going back to the parody thing, these, these teams are going to start getting. There's going to be more, more breath to the competitive teams versus just all the depth being in the SEC and a few Big Ten schools like a lot of these, A lot of these schools are going to get some really talented people depending what their nil boosters are going to be. And hey, they want to go for. I want to go be a starter and make this money at an SMU or a Georgia Tech or you know, you know, what other, whatever Boise State for all I know, you know, at a certain point. So there's going to be a lot of, a lot of different shakeups I think year by year in college football and what type of players and where that movement goes. And you're not going to see the SEC being so dominant, Ohio State being as dominant. They're going to be good, but they're not going to have four deep at every position of four to five star recruits because they're just not going to have the depth for the sec. Can't pay everyone under this table with the local Tuscaloosa, you know, car dealership, you know, everyone else has got the, got that deal now. [00:58:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean just like Jason said, with nil coming, I think the days of just what Georgia has done, that's the last we're going to see of a team just constantly dominating, getting to three, four straight championships in Alabama. It's going to be more even landscape. Nobody's going to be. Everybody's going to be having boosters money. You know, you open up the shoebox, everybody's going to be having cash now. You ain't got to be so secretive about it. Those late night private flights coming in with the billionaire boosters into Tuscaloosa, they're now going into Miami, they're now flying up to Michigan. All these teams are going to be playing on a much more even playing field. Transfer portals just opened up for three weeks here and you know, I just, I was listening to a talk show today or a couple days ago and a guy was like, yeah, mine, my nephew just got offered 750, 000 for one year in the transfer portal. So I mean it's out there. You put your name in, you put your name in, they're calling you up and saying, here's the figure and if somebody's willing to match it, come back, we'll give you 10 more. So we'll see what happens, man. But yeah, I mean, like Jason said, the secular, everybody now knows what's going on down there. And kids are not going to just want to stay around to sit on the bench. I mean, you can go somewhere. Michigan, they need a quarterback. Florida State, they need a lot of players. They got a lot of guys coming in, new coaching staff. They'll be back next year too, so we'll see what happens. Opening the year up with Alabama. I will be in Tallahassee for that opener next year. [01:00:27] Speaker A: You will? [01:00:28] Speaker B: Yes. There's an invite for you guys too, if you want to go. [01:00:32] Speaker A: I'll go. I love to go. I love to see you cry in person. [01:00:36] Speaker B: I'm looking for the upset, rush the field, storm the goal post. That'll be me. That's what I'm looking for. [01:00:41] Speaker C: I don't know Aaron, Aaron's sources to believe they're saying tons of nil money going to this Florida State recruiting class that's just bringing in people left and right in the state of Florida. [01:00:55] Speaker B: That is absolutely true, man. The class looked dead two weeks ago. And all of a sudden I know we're boosted up to a top 20 high school recruiting class flipped like six guys on signing day. Transfer portals open. [01:01:08] Speaker A: It was a weird signing day. It was a lot of switches this year. [01:01:10] Speaker B: They took a lot of guys from your team in Nebraska, brought over a lot of good coaches from there. Gus Mo's on somehow didn't take a 13 million dollar buyout to be the OCF Florida state. So I don't know what booster shine those shoes, but like Jason said, the money right now in Tallahassee is it's planning on trees right now. It's growing. [01:01:29] Speaker A: As much as I want to talk about fsu, like they're not relevant right now. All right, early favorites to win it all. [01:01:36] Speaker C: It's tough to go against Oregon just all year, you know, been far and away the number one team in the country. Got challenged by Ohio State. Ran through the Big Ten in their first year. I think that's the easier pick to kind of look at. But they're gonna have a tough matchup in their first, in their first game with Ohio State or Tennessee. And then like Aaron said, probably Texas matching up in the Final Four with them. So they'll have it there. [01:02:03] Speaker A: But are you going with Oreo then? [01:02:05] Speaker B: Was that your favorite? I think Jason had Oregon to win this at the start of the season. Right. [01:02:10] Speaker A: I have to go back. I have to go back and pile it off together again. [01:02:13] Speaker C: I know Jason's had a lot of bad takes this year, so I can't remember him. Let's just say I had Oregon. I mean, you, Notre Dame, I don't know if they can win it with my heart as they can, because there is a path I see for them to get to it, but it's all running game for them and you against a couple of these other offenses in the College Football Playoff. They can get up and down the field with the passing game. They have an All American at safety and Xavier Watts and a few other guys. The linebacking corps, which has put this defense as one of the best in the nation. But, you know, can they go toe to toe with some teams that can really score on the ground? That'll be the biggest test for Notre Dame. [01:02:52] Speaker A: Aaron, who you got? Who's your favorite right now? And we'll go more in depth. Plug in a week from now. [01:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's tough not to like Oregon, but I mean, given where college football out is at right now, to go undefeated, that's what they got to do. They didn't lose during the regular season. We're talking about them running the table and going to perfect 16 and, oh, never been done before in college football. Something tells me they slip up and lose. But we'll. We'll see Georgia, Notre Dame. I'm really interested to see that because if Notre Dame can win that game, they could get to the final. I think it's probably going to be. I hate to say it, I think Texas is going to get to that championship game. It's just a matter of it's going to be Notre Dame or Georgia. They're waiting for him. And is Georgia going to three Pete their ass? That's. That's the real question. Yeah. If they don't have Carson Beck, I think Notre Dame's the sneaky team to get in right there. They'll beat Boise State if it's them. Penn State, Notre Dame. That'll be a classic battle. We'll see what happens, man. [01:03:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Love it. Notre Dame's gonna be my dark horse pick this year. That's my sleeper to win it all. But I. I still think Texas is the best team in the country. So. Still going with Texas to win it real quick, the Holiday Bowl. Jason. I was pulling it up. [01:04:15] Speaker B: Syracuse versus Washington State. [01:04:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:19] Speaker B: Shootout. It's a shootout. [01:04:24] Speaker A: I've only been to one bowl game, I think. [01:04:27] Speaker B: Yeah. That's when you went to. [01:04:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Here in San Francisco. [01:04:30] Speaker B: UCLA, Florida State, back in 09, whatever year that was. [01:04:33] Speaker A: Yeah. I remember wearing my UCLA jersey. I gotta find out where my jersey at. Talking match. Because we were beating that ass, Aaron. And then. And then you guys just came back and just won and it was. It was amazing. It was a weird game. [01:04:48] Speaker B: It's a good bowl victory. [01:04:50] Speaker A: It was a good game. Yeah. That's some cool games. I would like to go to a bowl game this year. [01:04:56] Speaker C: Bowl games are fun. They definitely change over the year. Holiday bowl has been through a lot of different iterations. Was that Qualcomm, you know, for the first majority of games that I went there, had some big matchups. Back in the day you had Pac12, Big 12 for a long time. So you got a lot. I got a lot of Cal, Texas, Texas A and M, Nebraska in their, you know, kind of in the early years that I was going to those games. In recent years, they bet probably some lesser schools there now with no ties to a Pac 12. It was kind of a really. An open kind of pool, but still. Guess getting one of the Pac 12 teams and Washington State over there. So I don't know. Good time. It was at Petco the last couple seasons, but now going. But now going to Snapdragon Stadium this year. So be the first that it is where you. Qualcomm used to be that San Diego State plays at. [01:05:46] Speaker B: What's the name of the stadium now? [01:05:47] Speaker C: I think Snapdragon Stadium. [01:05:49] Speaker B: Okay. [01:05:50] Speaker A: Tech backed up. Are. Have they torn down Qualcomm yet? [01:05:55] Speaker C: Yeah, that's what Snapchat. [01:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah. That's where the new stadium is. Yeah. [01:05:58] Speaker A: Oh, they built a new stadium. [01:05:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:00] Speaker A: How am I out of the loop? [01:06:01] Speaker B: It's like what, 35, 000, 40, 000 seats? It's not that big, is it? [01:06:05] Speaker C: No, it's a smaller stadium. Yeah, it's. It's in the smaller. Smaller end. I think the women's NWSL Soccer League team for San Diego that Alex Morgan plays on, I believe they played there too. [01:06:18] Speaker A: Interesting. [01:06:21] Speaker C: But. Yeah, but bowl games are great, you know, obviously some big ones too. Rose Bowl 2005, best game I ever been to. That was the Vince Young Michigan Rose Bowl. That was the Vince Young kind of. [01:06:36] Speaker A: You went to that? [01:06:37] Speaker C: I went to that. [01:06:38] Speaker A: God damn it. That was so jealous. [01:06:40] Speaker C: The coming out party before his next year at the Rose bowl when he unseated USC for the national championship. [01:06:47] Speaker A: Still one of my favorite title games. Cool. Is that it Guys. [01:06:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you want to talk Soto's contract at the end of this break or what do you want to do? [01:06:59] Speaker A: Sure, let's take a quick break. We could talk Soto. Sure. [01:07:01] Speaker B: Little Formula one too, right? [01:07:05] Speaker C: Aaron knows. [01:07:11] Speaker A: All right, baseball time. Juan Soto. Thank God he's on the Dodgers. My opinion, mid player at best. He will be overpaid for 13 of those 15 years. That's my prediction. Big regret as we always see these contracts. They're going to regret it like you know, five years into this thing. 6,765 million with the Mets. Didn't see the Mets coming into the picture, but it was about 50 more than what the Yankees offered. Apparently. News came out that the Red Sox offered similar 15,700mil as well. Don't know what the daughters offered, but I guess it doesn't really matter. I would not have liked him coming to the daughters anyways. But what are you guys thoughts though on Soto's big signing with the Mets? I thought he wanted to play on a contender. Aren't the Mets kind of a mess year in, year out? Did he just want the spotlight to himself? Didn't like Judge. [01:08:13] Speaker C: I don't know if I call them. The Mets a mess. They started off terrible and then, you know, made. Made a charge into October. The thing with the Mets, for their ownership, particularly with Steve Cohen, the guy's worth $21 billion. So when you're talking away given 765 million like it, say nothing to him. [01:08:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:39] Speaker C: And I will say for Soto, thinking back to the Bryce Harper contract, I Bryce Harper and now Juan Soto. While these contracts, everyone says they're bad because of the length and how much money you're paying them. If you can get a generational player in their mid to early, you know, mid to late 20s. So Soto's 26. I think I'm right on that, Aaron. [01:09:11] Speaker B: Yeah. 26, I think. Yeah. [01:09:13] Speaker C: You're now getting him through, you know, prime in baseball generally goes to about 32, maybe 33. So you're gonna get the first four to seven years, you know, before he's, you know, four years before he's 30. And then, you know, a couple years into his 30s, I of some prime, you know, caliber years that generally for a baseball player, will you regret the late, you know, his late 30s, potentially with the NL not having a DH, I think there's a transitional period for to keep these bats alive. If this was an NL contract going where he's playing in the field, I think it's different. But if you're Going to give someone a 15 year contract, him being only 26 year old takes them to that, that cusp of 40. These are the ones, the few and far between I think you actually go for. And these players aren't going to come around every off season because majority of NFL play MLB players, you know, their time's taken up in the minors. It's not like NBA or some other sports where you know, you're put in at 19. You know, Soto and Harper are some of these exceptions that they got there because once the, once a MLB team starts your clock and for major league service time they lose control. And that's why the Nationals, you know what, three, four years ago were trying to offer him an extension at that time. I think Aaron, correct me, there was like 500 million. I think they offered him at some. [01:10:35] Speaker B: Point 4, 480, 500 million even like 2022, 2021 basically after the year they won the World Series I believe. [01:10:44] Speaker C: Yeah, and he was a no on that. And they're trying to lock him up early which been a great deal at the time for the, the Nationals if they would have got him to agree with that. But he knew at the time his he was going to get something bigger later, which he eventually did. But it's why the Padres weren't going to sign him. You know, shockingly the Yankees were all in on him from, from the trade because they gave away the assets for him. You know, pretty much everyone thinking that he's going to resign there after they gave away that. So for the Mets I think it steals something from the Yankees. I think they get a huge bat to put in the lineup around, you know, lim door and a couple other pieces. But they're gonna lose probably Pete Alonso. So they're losing a big bat, but it's a big sign. [01:11:26] Speaker B: I'm not sure they're gonna lose Pete, man. I think he's probably gonna get a contract there. [01:11:31] Speaker C: I know Rome, you're looking at us like we're crazy over here. So what does Dodgers takes? [01:11:37] Speaker B: Personally I would not have signed Soto for 15 years or 765 million. And I think the contract can actually get worth valued up close to 800. [01:11:46] Speaker A: 800. [01:11:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I know there's an opt out of Soto wants to take it after five years. I mean making that kind of money. I doubt he opts out unless he's just on a tear and wins like two MVPs and maybe a World Series and then OPS out and wants another 10 year contract instead of making annually 50 million he can get 60 million. Who knows what the cat. Well, there's no cap, but who knows what the dollar and everything will go up with going forward. But Yeah, I mean, 15 years. Soto, to me, he's a great hitter. He draws a lot of walks. His on base percentage is one of the best ever, but he doesn't still bases. He's terrible in the outfield. [01:12:22] Speaker A: We saw him run in the playoffs. He's slow. He's not a good fielder. [01:12:25] Speaker B: No, his arm is average. [01:12:28] Speaker A: How is your goal glove finalist anyways? I was like, that was a slap in the face. [01:12:32] Speaker B: I think if you don't make, you know, that many errors or balls that we would consider most outfielders to get to, he can't. So they don't give him errors or whatever on it. [01:12:41] Speaker C: He also was playing right field in Yankee Stadium, which is like 15ft of ground you have to cover before it's a home run. [01:12:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that too. The same over there. When he played there in Petco too, it was just all foul territory. There's nothing there. Yeah, but I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna blame Soto for taking the deal. You know, Scott Bors's agent did a great job. You know, Jason alluded to it. Washington was smart trying to lock him up on that 480, $500 million deal three, four years ago. You know, Boris, he's, he's the best in the game. Said, hey, look, this is where the market's going to be in the next three, four years if you continue doing what you're doing. And he parlayed that into another, you know, extra 250 million bucks, which is a lot of money if you look at it. [01:13:25] Speaker C: It is. And albeit everything I said, I don't think this is a great contract. But to my original point, when your owner is worth over 20 billion and this guy wants to win, he's a winner, he's cool. I'll, I'll take a sunk cost and I'm going to get the big prize free agent and continue to build around because I have the financial resources for it. On the flip side, this is why a lot of MLB owners, specifically the cheap owner for the team I root for, tried to keep guys like Steve Cohen out of baseball for the longest time because this was always the fear when you bring in, you know, other billionaires into it that are going to be freewheeling and spending because we're resetting the market on what contracts will be. Think back to when a Rod signed with the Rangers at 250 million or whatever it was that was insane at the time. Now we're talking about a $760 million deal that can potentially be 800 million. The lopsidedness of how we're paying players, you know, is wild. And I looked on the White Sox Twitter as I go through because White Sox, one of two teams that have never signed a hundred million dollar contract, let alone a 700 million dollar contract. Juan Soto's bonus at 76 million. To sign this contract would tie the biggest contract in White Sox history. [01:14:54] Speaker B: Crazy. And I mean like Jason said, a lot, a lot of these guys outside of like Harper Soto says so much. [01:15:02] Speaker A: We just talk about his team. I love it. [01:15:04] Speaker C: I hate them so much. I hate them, all of them. Notre Dame, the only one that's keeping it, keeping me alive. [01:15:11] Speaker A: Oh man, this is so good. [01:15:13] Speaker B: Let's just hope Notre Dame doesn't give me before Christmas. I don't, I don't want Jason's like Christmas to get ruined if Indiana pulls that upset. [01:15:20] Speaker C: It's why I'm not flying to South Bend, because believe me, while I was sitting there watching the Bears get destroyed, I was looking at Notre Dame, Indiana tickets on StubHub. But I'm not going because I don't want to. I don't. [01:15:34] Speaker B: That might be smart, man, I don't want to play off game ever. So. But yeah, like Jason said, a lot of these players in baseball don't really make it to the majors till they're already like 22, some 23. Because yeah, you're under minor league control. You're playing, you know, rookie ball, a ball, double A, triple A. And I think you've seen a team, a lot of teams I know the Braves have, are kind of one of the teams that bring guys up young 20, 21. You ball out your rookie year and they just lock you in with like a 8 year, like 120 million. Like just give you that contract right now so you ain't got to wait the three, four years and you're only making, you know, in the top 30 or 40% of that position salary. So if you got a good farm system, that's a good way to look at it going forward. But the Mets, they want to win. I mean, Lindor's making a lot of money. He was not living up to his contract, didn't had an MVP year. People are already talking about paying 30 million from him. Pete Alonso, the Mets, I've heard, want to keep them. He's a New York guy, I think. [01:16:37] Speaker A: They'Ll bring him back yeah. [01:16:39] Speaker B: What is he seeking? Is he seeking 200, 300 million? [01:16:42] Speaker A: I don't think so. I think he's gonna friendly deal. [01:16:47] Speaker B: I mean, he's not gonna make. He's not gonna take any less than 250 million. I don't see Pete taken. [01:16:52] Speaker A: I don't think anyone else can be offering that. [01:16:57] Speaker C: The, the Red Sox just lost out on Soto. So this money is available somewhere. Just who's they got? Rizzo. [01:17:06] Speaker B: But Rizzo's gone. He's gone, so. And they offered him 16 years, 760 million. I did see the Giants just signed Willie adamus for what, 182 million, seven years. [01:17:22] Speaker C: Yeah, I saw something like that. [01:17:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So to me that's a, to me, that's a better value deal than paying for Juan Soto. [01:17:29] Speaker C: But that's the dynamic in off seasons now. And we saw it with what Montgomery and then who am I blanking that Just signed with the Dodgers. When he signed, yes. Now when he signed with the Giants last year. I mean, Boris has kind of had a, an mo the last couple off seasons where these guys have held out pretty much all the way into spring training or close to the start of the season because, you know, they're not. He's looking for a big deal, but not every one of them are going to get it. Soto, I was the prize of this free agent class and given his age and production so far, it, I think it was easier for teams to really throw at and want to secure his services. And there was a bidding war for it. But you know, when we talk about pitchers that become replaceable after, you know, they have one or two Tommy John surgeries and then they've got the innings on them and then, you know, what is their wins above replacement? Is that as much spending some of that money? The contract variance just is so big where hey, you're going to get these big market teams are willing to shell this money out. But on the flip side, you're going to be looking at the other, the bottom 10, you know, teams in the league that are just basically for thrift store players that they're hoping to get something out of that, you know, have a marginal, you know, wins above replacement, you know, versus what a. Like a big time guy like Soto. So when you talk about Soto's opportunities and you know, all that he brings to the table, there's a lot of, you know, opportunities that you're saying that you're not getting in the 700 million that hey, teams like the Rays or you know, a few other the small Market teams that play that still Moneyball concept that are still looking for, but you're not getting big deals. [01:19:04] Speaker B: Hell, hell, the Rays won't even put 30 million in to renovate their fucking stadium. [01:19:08] Speaker C: No. [01:19:08] Speaker B: So I mean. [01:19:11] Speaker C: It'S my concern for baseball overall and health as a sport. We might have talked about this before you, but you got two teams that are playing in minor league parks next season and don't have prospects to build their permanent, you know, park. You got a team like the White Sox who are basically fire sailing the entire organization trying to get a ballpark built. You have several organizations that have local TV contracts that went belly up with the Bally sports network, you know, filing for bankruptcy and you know, different iterations of that. You know, there's a lot of positives in the health in baseball and they continue to tout. The attendance and revenues are kind of up, but valuations of half of the league. It isn't attractive to own an MLB team like it was in the past. And you're just going to get, try to try to get by with some cheapskate antics. A lot of people are going at the Cubs in Chicago right now that they are not in on any big free agency. So for the Ricketts family, you're in a top three media market and you got the Dodgers shelling out money. The Mets and Yankees shout out money. But the Cubs have just, they're trying to get rid of Bellinger and are not in on anyone right now. And they're past their window of winning before and should be well within the rebuild and they're not even close to being a playoff team right now. Done. Rome. [01:20:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:30] Speaker A: I'm just reading up a little more on Soto right now and just how dominant he is at the plate. Bringing comparisons to Barry Bonds. That's pretty crazy. [01:20:41] Speaker B: I mean, Soto's a good player. I would, I would have liked to deal from the Met standpoint if it had been just 10 years. Yeah, that way he's 36 or like for me, I, I like to get guys more in their prime. So if you have the money, be like, okay, if we're paying you $50 million, I just want for five years, let me get you at 65 million a year. Well, that's why I think that I could have 32. I could dump you at 32 and then bring in the next young generational player. Because we saw what happened with the Angels with Pujols. Okay. They got stuck with that contract in the last three years. Yeah, we're pretty, we're Pretty miserable for the Angels and Pools there. Then he was kind of bouncing around. They had a good kind of farewell tour of the Dodgers and then back with the Cardinals again. But yeah, pool. [01:21:28] Speaker C: So, like, even when he signed the deal with the Angels, he never had a season with the Angels like he did for his career with, with the Cardinals. It was all downhill. But yeah, he was past that 30. Primer. [01:21:39] Speaker A: He was way past already. [01:21:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:21:41] Speaker C: Or Soto, at least they're buying the next four years in his 20s. But hey, they're still going to get the 10 years all the way up to 40. There will be, there's definitely to be regret in that contract. But the, the risk is, hey, we can afford it. We're the Mets. The owner's rich. This would paralyze most of the franchises, but we got the guy. [01:22:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. They got the money. And if you can win a World Series, then it's, it's going to be worth it because, I mean, I, I don't remember the last time the Mets won a World Series. But you know, we talked about, I mean, I don't know if we talked about on the show yet, but the Otani contract, 700 mil looked ridiculous. But now you got an MVP, you got a World Series, possible small dynasty coming there. It's going to easily be worth it when it's all said and done. [01:22:24] Speaker C: Well, the hilarious thing now, the Ohtani contract is almost a bargain because you're paying him to both hit and pitch. So next season, you know, he's going to be hitting and pitching and you're getting that for a cheaper long term price for 700 million. That the Soto contract is so. [01:22:42] Speaker A: Crazy. [01:22:44] Speaker B: I, I did see that the Golden Bat proposition or whatever did not pass or got shut down by the commissioner. I didn't. [01:22:54] Speaker C: We talked about that last week. [01:22:55] Speaker A: We did kind of a little bit. Yeah. [01:22:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Just Rob Manford ripping off Stu Gotz there on the Dan LeBatard Show. It was his idea. [01:23:03] Speaker A: Yeah. You want to talk A one, A one, a one. [01:23:12] Speaker B: Hey, but I will say this. If that Golden Bat rule does get passed, the one solo contract may even look sweeter because you can bring them up whenever you want. So maybe that was, maybe that is priced in this new contract. [01:23:25] Speaker C: I guess before we move on to F1, we'll have more time to talk about baseball down the road. But yeah, I don't know when the collective bargain agreement is up, but I feel you're gonna have probably a riff between these, the Steve Cohen and billionaire owners that are shelling out this money in the small market teams, depending on what the salary stuff's going to look like in future iterations. Because I the sustainability of this for baseball and between small market and big market owners and the players, I think there's gonna be a lot of strikes. And, you know, there could be a strike down the road. [01:24:03] Speaker B: I'd agree. [01:24:06] Speaker A: I have no complaints right now. [01:24:08] Speaker C: We know. But on to F1, the Abu Dhabi Grand Free Grand Prix, the season finale of F1. [01:24:24] Speaker A: I didn't watch it, man. So what time. [01:24:26] Speaker B: What time that air like 5am it was 5am 5am I wasn't gonna get up at 5. I got. Soon as I got up, I checked the results and just heard lap one. Crazy crashes. McLaren won the constructors cup, right? [01:24:41] Speaker C: Yep, that's correct. [01:24:42] Speaker B: So, yeah, I saw read that. [01:24:45] Speaker C: Yeah, Ton of drama on that first lap. That's really where it was at. You had world champion Max Verstappen going for it into turn one, got on the inside of Oscar Piastri, the second McLaren driver. Ended up hitting Piastri's back wheel, spinning both of them out in front of Everybody. Which for McLaren was just worst case scenario. As they held the lead in the constructors didn't take him out, but put pastry in the back of the pack. Verstappen spun out, regained his position fairly quickly. You had other drama in the first. At the other Red Bull driver. We talked about Sergio Perez. He was out on the first lap. And a different incident on lap one. You know, finished last, did not finish probably his last race with Red Bull, as everyone's kind of talked through what his future is going to be. So it was a pretty, you know, uneventful finale, potentially for him. And in Red Bull, you had Franco Colo Pinto. I think we talked about that with him, Rome. But he's the Argentinian driver that's been filling in for Williams. He's basically been wrecking cars left and right. I know Aaron's got the kick out of that. He was another DNF this year. He was the. He was the hot name coming in, had some good results, but probably will not get an F1 drive next year, which many people thought he might just because of how much he has crashed in the Williams car. And if there's one thing in Formula one you do not want to do is damage the car. Because when you talk about the cost cap and repairing these cars, all these incidents cost a lot of money. You actually had Pierre Gasly and Alpine was the first driver in history to not cost his Team any money in damages for the entire season which is pretty unheard of. But all of that money not wasting on on damage parts and having to replace parts and things like that. Long term benefits for the team. And that just took Cola Pinto out. You had Liam Lawson, he's one of the RB drivers, probably the replacement for Sergio Perez at Red Bull also out. And Valtteri Botas in the Sabre. He's the former Mercedes driver. Potentially his last race in F1. He had a great qualifying run. He qualified in the top 10. It was the first time all year. But he had a DNF and had an incident with one of the Haas drivers, Kevin Magnuson towards the end of the race as well. So a lot of stuff there was, you know several drivers did not finish the race. Lando Norris got that lead in lap one, led it all the way through. That went alone clinch McLaren's constructors championship just ended one of the best F1 seasons maybe ever. People are calling it. Yeah, as I mentioned in the previous pod, seven different winners of multiple races throughout the year with four different constructors. You had the drama at the at the end of the season with the drivers championship between Lando and Max Verstappen but then having the world champion Steam finished third in the constructors with Max versatile with Red Bull and then not even being in it at the last race between Ferrari and McLaren and Ferrari McLaren being kind of the two legacy Formula One teams really the kind of. Not the original but they've been the two longest standing F1 teams competing for the constructors entry. Now you go into this 2025 season. It was the finale for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes this last race too which are the most successful team driver pairing in F1 history. Lewis won six championships with them along with eight constructors titles. Did Mercedes win with Lewis on board and he's going to be going over Ferrari which Ferrari with leclair and Hamilton is going to be really a force for the constructors next year. And Lewis really chasing history to win the eighth world championship with would break the record with tie with him and Michael Schumacher for most all time. So it's going to be a wild 2025 season. I know we'll probably. I'll make you guys talk about it. It sounds like Aaron, Aaron's already watching. [01:28:44] Speaker B: When's the 2025 calendar start? When's these first race? Man we don't get it. As long as they're within a good reasonable time I'm in man. [01:28:52] Speaker C: We don't get it till March. It'll be in March in Australia kicking off, so we'll have some interesting stuff in the meantime. But the field is set. You know, all the drivers pretty much have made their moves except for the Red Bull seat. While Sergio Perez does have the contract. People expect movement around that, so we'll probably get some news about Red Bull. My guess is this week on what their driver lineup is going to be for both their primary team and the secondary team. [01:29:15] Speaker B: They have nice. I'm down to do Grand Prix Vegas, man, if you guys are in, I'm down this upcoming year, Grand Prix Vegas, it's. [01:29:23] Speaker C: I mean, it sounds like it starts from the Sosa trip, you know, now. [01:29:28] Speaker A: That I know I've connects with a lot of the clubs over there for champagne service. We definitely gotta make it happen. [01:29:34] Speaker C: We will make it happen. I will be. This will be kind of my finale with the Mercedes gear. I'm gonna have to trade it in for the red Ferrari gear for Lewis Hamilton going over there. So we'll have to look it for some new merch here in the new season with Ferrari. [01:29:48] Speaker A: New merch. Take it. I am dead tired, guys. [01:29:54] Speaker C: We can tell you out on the baseball conversation, I didn't think it was because we weren't talking Dodgers for the first time in baseball, and, you know, you've been pretty engaged in the F1, you know, really teaching the. Teaching the folks around San Francisco and the local brewery establishments about F1, but you were pretty much out on this one this weekend. [01:30:12] Speaker B: This week in rome was the F1 guy that crashed. He's the one that got carried out and he. He crashed. This week. [01:30:18] Speaker A: I definitely redlined. [01:30:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:20] Speaker A: I was pushing this engine a little too much. [01:30:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:23] Speaker A: And now we got to do repairs. [01:30:24] Speaker B: You got it. You got to pin in the pit, man. [01:30:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:30:26] Speaker B: Gotta box it. [01:30:27] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm looking forward to 20, 25 as well. I didn't even go to the gym. That's how. That's how much I. I felt like. Because I. I go to the gym every single day, at least for an hour and a half. I didn't even make it today. Wasn't happening. I barely walked the dog three blocks, and I was, like, exhausted after that. This guy's just like, dude, get your life together. Just sitting here with me. Thinks I'm, like, dying or something, probably. [01:30:55] Speaker C: Well, Rome needs to rest up. You got some, you know, big games coming ahead for your Steelers, for Texas. You know, you got to be in the right state of mind to be rooting for these games coming up. [01:31:06] Speaker A: Well, you know, Steelers Yeah, Texas is not my team. Team, team, they're just. I root for them. No one will ever replace the baby blue and ucla. So there's not a lot of rooting going on over there. [01:31:21] Speaker B: No ball game. You got Nebraska, they got a ball game. [01:31:25] Speaker A: Who do they play? [01:31:26] Speaker B: Boston College, I think in the Pinstripe Pinstripes bowl in New York. Yankee Stadium. [01:31:32] Speaker A: I don't like that matchup. [01:31:34] Speaker B: They'll beat them. [01:31:35] Speaker A: Yeah, the Michigan, though, that'd be fun. Alabama. Michigan has no chance. [01:31:48] Speaker B: Depends who plays. [01:31:49] Speaker A: Yeah, cool. Yeah, I'm just brain dead. That's all I got. That's all I got, guys. [01:31:59] Speaker C: That's a wrap for this week then. [01:32:01] Speaker A: That's a wrap. Yeah, we'll come back. [01:32:03] Speaker C: Are you ready for Thursday lines room? I don't know if you're gonna be recovered for Thursday lines. [01:32:07] Speaker A: I don't think so either, to be honest with you. It's not looking too good. [01:32:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Today's only Monday. We'll get an injury. We'll get an injury report. If he's, you know, questionable or doubtful late Wednesday evening into Thursday, since he. [01:32:23] Speaker C: Recorded today, he's got to be marked questionable. We'll, we'll update the pod. Going into what his injury designation is, I'd say questionable. [01:32:30] Speaker B: Leaning towards doubtful, but that's still up for debate. [01:32:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I need to hit the gym tomorrow. I'm doing a three hour gym session. [01:32:38] Speaker B: I'll call your gym and ask how the session went and then we'll, we'll see whether or not you're ready for an upgrade. You might just be a limited participant. [01:32:45] Speaker C: Well, at least Aaron gonna call those sources from the sofa over at the gym. Just see where Rome's at. On the treadmill. Was he only on the treadmill? Doing some light cardio. Was he walking? A little jog? Did he, did he get any weights in? You know, big question mark. [01:33:00] Speaker B: Or was he just chatting it up? You know the good thing? We're gonna find out. [01:33:04] Speaker A: I did change gyms. And the gym that I go to, it's filled with lots of talent. I feel alive when I'm there. I have to meet the future Mrs. At that gym. It's just. It's just great. [01:33:17] Speaker B: Well, then you got to pin off. You got to be, you know, you. [01:33:20] Speaker A: Can'T get like a good sweat in. It's like they got the movies playing in the background. It's too much air conditioning, all the fans. [01:33:26] Speaker C: Well, from this it sounds like you need to hit the sauna and just. [01:33:29] Speaker A: Start, you know, you're right. [01:33:32] Speaker B: Sauna does sound. [01:33:33] Speaker A: I did take like an hour shower today. I was just melting in the hot water. [01:33:39] Speaker B: You take a shower or bath? [01:33:41] Speaker A: I'll shower. [01:33:42] Speaker B: That's a lot of water. Be running for an hour, man. [01:33:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It feels good, though. [01:33:49] Speaker C: It's not like we live in California and there's a drought or anything, and this guy's taking hour long showers. [01:33:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I had a friend that got really upset. He's like. He's like, how long do you take showers? I'm like, I'm in there for like 20, 30 minutes. I don't know. He's like, what? He's like, from Australia. He's like, I just understand how you Americans do that. I go in for five minutes. Like, five minutes. I'm like, warming up in five minutes. I don't know. All right, I'll be a wrap, though. Let's get off this thing. [01:34:16] Speaker B: All right.