This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jake and Zalez Sound Fox
Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat
z R two SAD and iHeart Radio Station Yet. Hey, good afternoon,
everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jagin's oh scutt a guy Kevin in Today. Hello.
Hello, Well Thursday afternoon, almost the end of the week. Didn't
we just come? This week? Went fast? Don't kill it, don't
kill it, no hitter, I know, but I got up. I
got up this morning and I'm like, crap, Thursday. Here's the thing,
because I had a Dnnis appointment this morning. So I've been thinking about
this damn Dinnis appointment still all week. And I hit it and I'm like,
he's still on your edge that you're taking it this way or what?
No? No, no, no, it's gone fast. It's gone fast,
dude. How old is your dentist? Uh, he's young. He's
used to be a basketball manager. Okay, I have a new dad forty
forty, have a new Dennis and Dougie Houser. I think he's younger than
my son. Everybody. It's the way of the world now, right,
you know, watch TV news really good, you know, did a really
nice job. I loved his hygienist, April, thank you for the for
the you know, for the work today. She was very nice. But
she was new to Well it's a new dentist for me, new Dennis so
and uh, they they're really good. But he's a child. No,
that's just the way of the world. Is your your life the rest of
your life. Everybody's younger than your rush your life, you're going to be
depending on some doogie house or dude saving this old man to live some more
lives. Yeah, you're never going to be younger than you are right now.
And you're never gonna be older than you are. The dude that did
my my surgery a year ago, I just got a letter from he's retiring,
and I said he should retire before he did my surgery because he was
old. Well, say, that's the thing I'm I'm looking for. I've
got to I'm I'm kind of in between of that because the doctor I've had,
the general practitioner, I've had her for forty years and you freaking retired
on me, Like, what the hell are you doing? So you were
supposed to outlive me and that worked me. Now I gotta go, I
gotta go find a doctor. Yeah, we're that age man. Yeah,
on the cusp of nowhere, meaningless. And then little kids coming in across
across the way. Well, the Kevin's of the world. Although Kevin,
you don't look twelve. I appreciate there's some guys who are listening. Who
I know who I'm talking Who knows who I'm talking about with this Dennis,
he's just a boy. Yeah, no, no, no, I guess
that's the way of the world. Uh, hey, a lot of good
things. Today. We have Paula Woven from the she's with the world or
cronkite scro but she's also a former uh put her together, how would you
College Football Playoff committee member? Right right, So we're gonna pick her brain
right to see to see what they're thinking. Yeah. Uh and maybe she
doesn't know, but the room. Yeah, she's been in the room behind
the curtain a little bit. We had her a few months ago, kind
of to this point a while back. But now it's kind of prickly.
This is that man, you know, and and the conversation is crazy about
the scenarios. Everybody wants to run through all the scenarios, and there's so
many of them. You really can't, no, I know, because if
this happens, that happens, that's the whatever happens, you just gotta be
patience. Really telling though, because I was listening to the the College Football
Game Day whatever College game Day podcast with three S. Davis and there's the
other guy, Pete Damil and out of the box instead of the first thing
they talked about was how does Ohio State get in? And I'm like,
WHOA. First of all, that's so yeah, that's so far off.
Why are you talking about the other things? Right? But you know what
happens if Georgia loses and Alabama wins. Instead, they spent the first five,
six, seven minutes of their podcast talking about how Ohio Steak can get
in? What was the purpose? That was just the first thing that came
up because they talked about the rank They talked about the rankings. They went
you know, three, four, five, and then six Ohio State and
then they launched into, you know, five or six minutes of how Steak
gets in? And I'm like, wait a minute, why don't we talk
about what happens, you know with the PAC twelve championship, what happens?
You know, how does Texas get in? You know? It was just
weird that they went straight to figuring out a way to get Ohio State.
And the answer to that in two seconds is they can't get in. They
can't. No, they can, but so many things have to happen.
It's not what we're talking about. Well, exactly, the miracles have to
happen, right, So, yeah, there's that we're not we're talking about.
Okay, So we'll have her on at three fifteen, three seventeen something
like that, and then in the second hour we have Lamont Huntley still maybe
talking about the UA football program. He's he has something in common with you.
I won't tell you what it is until he comes on. It's not
that we both played in the NFL, because I didn't know, but that
was my first guy. I'm out, So I'll spring that on both of
you guys this time the next time, so we can talk about it on
the fly. Uh. So it should be fun and the issue game of
course, and then well there are chances in the Bowl game and all that,
because we're gonna hear about that Sunday, right right, Yeah, we
will know Sunday. All all signs point to Arizona being in the Alma Bowl.
Saw a thing from Ryank Karchy from the La Times. He says he
thinks, uh, or the signs are pointing to us. He taken on
Clemson in the Holiday Bowl, which is one of the balls that Arizona could
be under consideration for. If that's the case, When you would see they
landed in a nice spot, that is, that's better than they could expect.
I was thinking they dropped to the Sun Bowl or yeah, exactly,
and it's only because it's near down the road. Yeah. Well, and
part part of it is that the Holiday Bowls is not gonna take We heard
from Wilner holleyballs not taking U c l A for what they did to him
a couple of years ago. Then Oregon State's without a coach, so you
know, and and there's some breaking up state quarterback. We'll get to that.
You know that. Then you know who's available, right Uh, you
know you got you know really Arizon is that you know the third place team.
So then after that you go to Oregon state, and you've got you
know, where is Calgo? I mean, there's so many different places.
On's the holiday? What day that's it? That's it, like the day
after the aliment. So if they went there, I'm sure you would go
there. You are you cause Arizona went to the Holiday Ball. Yeah no,
well you don't. Actually I shouldn't say this because if my family's listening,
they're gonna they're gonna light me up. We're gonna be in California.
Oh so that week, so doing stuff that we've been planning for six months,
and all all of a sudden, you might they land in the Holiday
Bowl. That's kind of like, can we teach plans just a little bit,
just for one day for deer? Please do you love me? But
yeah, but if that happens, that happens, I think more fans will
go there. Obviously, then they would go to San Antonio. The holiday
is December twenty seventh, and then the Alamo Bowl is the twenty eighth.
So the twenty seventh is Wednesday. The twenty eighth is Thursday of that.
Okay, we're gonna be off that week, the whole week, and I'm
gonna just tell you, like whether whether it matters to you or not.
I'm gonna I'm not gonna be here tomorrow, so we're gonna call it.
Got some business. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna come in some other business.
You know it's gonna be mean tomorrow. You and I, You and
I. I guess that's it. Yeah, I'll get lunch. I love
lunch. Okay, we'll just forgure out what we do do. I love
lamp? You know that? You know that that reference? What did you
say? I love lamp? No? You know that reference? No Anchorman,
No, I don't. Yeah, that's why I literally watched that movie
like five nights Schilly move, silly. Yeah, what's the reference? Brick?
Are you just saying you love things that you see? Oh? Yeah?
And he's like, I love desk, I love lamp. That's another
reason why I didn't watch that movie on. Okay, before we move on,
while we're on the movie. Your your favorite Christmas movie? Oh?
I don't know. I have one here. That's the one where the Island
Misfit Toys. No, that's not a movie, that's as show. That's
Rudolf. I'm talking about it like a movie movie. Rotate to Steve,
he doesn't have one. He's a great and I don't know of Christmas story.
If you can impress me again, Hooler Express. Okay, Hohler Express.
Classics were watching it since I was like five, Okay, legit,
all right, see Steve get a favorite Christmas A lot of good ones Christmas
Christmas story. Okay, all right. He squeezed out the guy who was
about to die or die and I don't want to hell this. Yeah,
he came back and people loved him. Actually maybe, Oh you're thinking of
a wonderful lie that one. I should have known you would love a tragic
Christmas. Die hard die hard in this. You know, you guys,
you know what. We debate that for a whole long time. We only
have six more, all I know. Bruce Willis himself came out and said,
it's not the Christmas movie my my, my late brother in law,
you know, rest in peace, thought it was his favorite Christmas movie.
Just what you're not in tomorrow? You know what that means? Picks.
Oh, okay, I'll send him to I'll send him to and that'll be
the test, you see if I'm the curse. Yeah, I'll send him
to Kevi I forgot about that. Okay, I'll get him to Kevin.
Don't miss it. Well, maybe you should mess hm up. That's what
I can't any more than I have. I was just gonna say, maybe
I'm the curse, but also Jay's picks may already be cursed, so maybe
it's like that canceling out effect that Well, I'm not worried about Jay because
he's gone on. I'm a non factor Heve's life of picks. Yeah,
okay, because I'm very interested in this conversation of college football playoffs, not
because she's Paul is going to be able to tell us what she thinks is
going to happen, but just like, how does it? What's described?
What are these? What is it seems to me I didn't realize this is
the tenth year of already the college football playff. It seems to me like
this is the year that's like the tough fist of all. Don't you think
there's the most parody, there's more teams in it to the end. Do
you remember what happened in the past? I don't. I don't know is
a recentcy by AXS, but but this is the perfect time when they should
have had the twelve right. Yeah, this year would have been great for
the twelve right. And that's what that's what you know. So many people
are saying, which would be cool because the Arizona still might have a shot
at it. They could be data but debatable. What do you guys,
what do you guys think about the conversation that's been going on. I think
Kirk curve Street started it because he's kind of on the committity and committee excuse
me, and he came out and was like, I need to know,
you know, we should be more clear on is it the most deserving teams
or is it the best teams? Where do you guys fall on? Well,
they say the deserving say that's the best, but what should it be?
It's supposed to be the best. That's what the bylaws or whatever of
the of the playoff committee say. But I think, you know, again,
I look, if Florida State is twelve and zero, and Oregon is
eleven and one, Washington's eleven and one, Alabama is eleven and one,
Texas is eleven and one, and Georgia's eleven and one or twelve and one,
whatever they are, and and Florist State is thirteen and zero. I
think they're behind all those teams, but I also think they should be in
the playoffs. I think if you win all your games, you should be
in the playoffs. Well, it's kind it's kind of like the Heisman.
Honestly, who's the best player in college football? Who's you who? They're
gonna give it to quarterback whether he is or he is a quarterback on the
best team yeh, or the best quarterback on the highest rated team, presumably,
But there's pretty good players. There's other probably other places, yeah,
other positions. But it is what it is. I mean basketball, we
go through this in March, sixty eight teams and there's teams that there's teams
that are better than other teams, but that's because of some of the automatic
automatic bids. But when you're talking about the at large bids, always somebody
says that team was better than that team was because they were better than that,
because they were better than that. And you have sixty eight of them
just four yeah, yep, ye no. I you know, well,
we'll see if we can get Paula to kind of pull the curtain back.
Yeah, little what are they doing today, tomorrow and the next day to
get ready for you know, our friend Mark Carlin, maybe afterwards, I
think this is his last year on the committee. You know, maybe we'll
get him afterwards and say, okay, Mark, what the hell was that?
Like? Did you have fun? Right? Right? No, I'm
sure they I'm sure these guys are glad they're not or Paula's probably glad that
she's not on it, or maybe she's maybe she enjoyed it, you know,
especially under these conditions, because it's you're inside the trenches of I mean,
what's going to be happening. I mean you at some point in your
career you voted for AP or yeah, you know for about twenty years,
rankings and stuff like that. Did you feel any pressure about that? No?
No, not so much in terms of what the theory of doing it,
in terms of the you know, what people would think, not what
people, but that our people are watching what you're doing. I don't think.
I don't think I could be wrong in my time of being that for
like fifteen years, Uh, they published our picks. Don't think they published
our picks until recently. More recently, but you know, I mean I
am the state Wooden guy. I'm the head of the Wooden but no,
not really. I just got to make sure every he votes. Yeah.
You know, that's kind of the pressure. You know, you got to
vote, please vote, yeah, don't forget. Yeah, but like you
know, this will be my uh my third year voting for the Heisman.
I'll feel a little pressure on this because I want to get it right.
Okay, But I've had my opinion as to who deserves the Heisman all my
life and now I'm voting for it. And I did vote for it one
other time when I was, you know, covering football back in the day.
But I kind of feel like I don't want to screw this up.
But you can't. I mean, it's your pick, it's my pick,
I know, but I want to pick the right guy for the right reason.
You want to land on the right side of history, right, you
want to look back? No? Is that that's not it? No,
no, no, it's that I want to make sure that the guy I
pick is worthy, Okay, and that's what you should do. Yeah.
Then the other day, yeah, hey, let's take the break now,
Okay, take the break, and then about four minutes come back with Paula
on the other side. All right, form a college football Playoff Committee member
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is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just search I on
the Ball. Hey, welcome back to Why on the Ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jackensaustin. I want, if
only have PAULA Boyman, former College Football Committee member, former columnists for The
Arizona Republish. Paula, how you doing? I am good? Thank you
good good. We're trying to figure out what the committee's going through right now.
First of all, are you happy you're not on or happy or not
happy you're Is this a good time? I didn't know I'm going through withdrawal.
It would be so fun to be in that room right now, because
especially you know, after this weekend's games, it could chaos could ensue,
you know, if Alabama wins or whatever. So no, I really really
miss it. I was gonna say, well that that's sort of my question.
You know, do you do you prefer do you prefer the chaos that
we're about to see or that could come about, or would you rather kind
of have a pretty good feel for it going in and not have to make
a lot of hard decisions. You know, I think I prefer the chaos
now that I'm aside the room. You know, you know, if we
even went in there was chaos when I was on the committee, it just
led to some really healthy, sometimes animated, deep discussions about the right thing.
You know, ultimately you want the right final four at the end of
the season. So if it's clear pretty quickly, yeah, that makes the
job easier. But I don't think any of us ever backed away from having
a good, healthy argument about who should be there. And I'm sure there
were a fuel right over the last four or five years. Jay, what
were you brought something up? This is the tenth year, This is the
tenth year of the of the of the playoffs, and you said this was
like the most controvertial. It seems to me like this is the year where
it's as the most chaotic. We're some the most possibilities of the most different
things that could happen based on all these games that have come down to the
last weekend. Was there any one you did it for four years? Was
there anyone that you thought was this kind of crazy as this one is turning
out to be? You know, I mean this year seems particularly unique.
You look at I think it's like five through eight or all eleven and one
teams who could all make really good arguments, you know, in the top
four, all undefeated team who have been playing great. But when you have
you know, suddenly a different quarterback in, or you have the argument of
a one lost team going over a no last s team. There's all kinds
of crazy scenarios this season, for sure. So and yeah, like I
said, after this weekend, it could get really fun. Yeah, no
question. And by this time that all the members have seen what twenty thirty
forty fifty games, they're probably footballed out because they've seen so many games and
have so many opinions. Yeah, you know, and it was and I
can't remember I've mentioned this to you before, but we were all giving these
given these iPads, and every game you could possibly want to watch is on
that iPad. We would be able to watch what was called the coaches Cut,
where there are no commercials and you could really speed through them. And
at the beginning of the season, you're watching an unbelievable amount of games because
you don't quite know who those top thirty forty teams are. It starts to
become clear a lot clearer toward the end of the season, and maybe you're
not watching quite as many. But yeah, I used to watch, you
know, I'd take breaks from work here to watch. I'd watch at night.
I'd watch a lot on planes. I'd watched when i'd get to Dallas
for the readings. So there is no you know, people have been skeptical
about how we used to get to the conclusions we used to get to,
and I can tell you we were watching a lot of football seas. So
what what are you looking for? It's kind of like a horse race,
right, who am I going to pick out of this? And you're looking
at the racing form all that information? So what do you look trying to
decipher? Yeah, I mean there's a lot of things. There's never one
thing. You know. Part of our charge was one of the things to
consider is that they won a championship, so that would always conference championship.
That would always help strength to schedule. We had all these sort of metrics
available to us where we combine or compare how these teams had a different strength
of schedule. We'd look at head to head competition, have they played the
same opponent, and then we'd kind of look at the comparative outcomes of common
opponents, and you know, with incentive margin and victories and things like that.
So there was all those elements in there. But then there was also
the eye test. I mean, you know, we might see somebody who
was eleven one that looked better than a twelve and oh team when we watched
games side by side, and so we put that team above. So there's
a lot of stuff involved. It's not just one thing, but those are
some of the main ones. Well, well, here's the sort of a
million dollar question. You know, you mentioned a bunch of criteria. There's
you know, however, many people are on the committee probably put various criteria
a different priority than the others, right, I mean you had a you
know, maybe there was some certain criteria that you thought were most important to
you, but were they the most important to the person sitting next to you?
You know, how does that when when you start throwing it all into
a pile, How does that work? That's a great question, and I
think that's why they really tried to have a diverse room of people. You
know, to my right whe year was Ronnie Lott. To my left was
the athletic director of Florida, and everybody brought something different. You know,
Ronnie was very much sort of an eye test guy. You could watch a
game and kind of judge how good he thought a team would be. I'm
very much into numbers and staffs and their strength of schedule. And so the
way we worked that out, you know, there are thirteen of us in
the room, and we would hash it out for hours and hours and hours,
and sometimes you're sort of convincing the other side or they're convincing you,
and it's very very animated, and it would often go into the wee hours
of the night. But we were always able to come to a conclusion,
you know, and it was just based on some strong arguments people would make.
So how many people on that committee? Twelve? Is it? How
many? Yeah? Thirteen? Thirteen? So how are those meetings? Because
if you have twelve people and two people sometimes can't agree on anything a way
into the late night. How does that happen? Yeah, it was.
They were fun. You know what we'd do is we'd go in there and
pretty much start the day by everybody ranks their top thirty just based on their
own opinion, not looking at an apeople or anything else. We'd just rank
our top thirty and then we would start going by chunks, you know of
ranking, you know, this top four and then the next five. And
we'd do that and as we were ranking and debating and arguing, we'd have
these arguments or not even arguments, they're really just healthy discussions over the course
of the evening, and then we'd sleep on it and we'd come back the
next morning and we'd do the same thing for half a day. But everybody
really came equipped with a lot of knowledge. We were also assigned certain conferences,
so we could kind of be experts on there, you know, if
there had been injuries, how a team is playing. So there is just
so much information being passed around that room that really did After those couple of
days, you felt good about the poll that you came up with. Well,
we're talking to paula boy before a remember of the college football path committee
giving us a little insight here. So it's Thursday, all right, so
they you know, this thing's got to come out on Sunday morning. You
know, what are you doing on what do you do on Thursday? When
does everybody get to Dallas? And then when does the arguing or the discussion
begin for the weekend? Youd questioned, with pizza boxes. Yeah, yeah,
pretty much. So this, yeah, this last weekend is unique because
typically we were in Dallas from I would be there from Sunday night until Tuesday
afternoon. So there was this last poll that ended Tuesday, and a lot
of us would just stay this week in Dallas. And then the one thing
that they were very adamant about is everybody on the committee had to watch that
final week of games together, championship games together, even the ads. You
might have a team playing down the road, you know, at the Cowboys
Stadium or something for conference championship. They could not leave the hotel either.
So those games, you know, usually started I think Friday night. There
were a lot of games Saturday. We were in this you know, a
conference room of this really nice hotel and we were this there all day and
night, and they would bring honestly, endless amounts of food. I can't
I can't tell you how many peanut M and ms I ate during the course
of those meetings. They feed us. Well, but yeah, we're just
watching games. And then so right after the you know, we would meet
it's Saturday evening and start talking about the games, and if there was a
late game, then we would regroup after that and then we would meet again.
You know, we'd sleep on it. We'd meet again Sunday morning,
and then we'd have something ready to go by you know, early afternoon or
whatever. So I'm curious, is there discussion during the games or no discussion?
Yeah, no, there's there's discussion in the sense of I mean,
we're not sitting at our tables debating like we usually do. But we're sitting
in chairs in a big room and there'll be a big play and someone will
say, hey, did you you know that quarterback is hot today? Or
did you see how those you know, those the linebackers have been playing just
like they've been playing all season, or those kind of conversations. You know,
we'd be talking in that way about the different things that we'd be see
we'd be seeing. So is it when when is the first like sort of
a like, I know you're going in, you've got rankings, but then
after whatever you had on Tuesday on the weekend, when is the first time
there's like you start to rank them where there's a vote or however you guys
do it that it starts to come together, I think. So I'm trying
to remember what the scheduled games were, but I think it would be it
was Saturday, you know, after the game, all the games, or
at least most of the games were done. You know, if there was
a late game, then we meet again after that late game to adjust,
but that would start Saturday night, you know, and a lot of the
some of the a lot of the teams in the top twenty five might be
done playing already. So a lot of the discussion was a lot of those
top teams, right well, in this case, you have you said eight
you talked about eight right wood loss teams whatever it is, there's only four
slots. So and then, like Jay says, there's so many different scenarios
if this happens, this is gonna happen, This gonna happen, And you're
thinking, well, we're thinking that. The committee says, please none of
these happen, are well, yeah, I mean, you know, it's
definitely you know, the biggest thing is you want to come out Sunday feeling
really really confident that you got it right. And so there are some scenarios
that would certainly make it easier, you know, if these certain teams won
and things like that. But I you know, I don't think the committee
ever backed away from a challenge either. So while it would be nice to
have it easy every time, you know, the process I think really results
in the right four. I mean, I think it's really worked out well
over the years, and so yeah, they might just be up a little
later, like I said, if in Alabama upsets Georgia or something like that.
Well, this week, the last two games of the day, which
would be at seven o'clock Dallas time, it's Louisville, Florida State, Michigan,
Iowa. You know, I think we don't think Missigan is going to
win that game. But the Florida State game is sort of the almost is
like the one the one stick that if you pull that out, it throws
everything into disarray. So but will they hit when they end their Saturday night,
will they kind of have an order and then you just kind of come
back and confirm it in the morning. Is that is that how you guys
get it? Pretty much? That's that's certainly the goal is to very much
have it take some votes, have some discussion, have it where you want,
and then Sunday morning and we would usually eat breakfast at seven thirty and
get at or seven and get at it at seven thirty or eight and revisit
it. And every once in a while, you know, somebody would come
back the next morning and look at something or see a stat or see some
matchup and then make an argument. You know, maybe we should have tweaked
that a little bit. Usually, you know, what we do the night
before it usually sticks. But it hadn't. It didn't always stick. So
we talked about this earlier. So next year it's gonna be twelve teams,
and we think that'd be a perfect time for that year, right, do
you have enough teams to fill it out? But I think next year you're
gonna think thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen are going to be pistol because they
got left off. There's plan always used. The scalill never end. There's
always going to be mad people, no question Okay, you said the effort
a little while ago. Fun wasn't really was it really fun? I mean,
did you have fun or you know, Steve and I were talking about
how mny. You know, do you feel pressure to make sure you get
it right? What are people going to say to you if they feel you
didn't get it right? You know, I'm a Heisman voter, Steve's on
he's been an AP voter and stuff like that. You want to get it
right? But how much fun was it? It was? You know it
was? I mean, you obviously take eight afterwards. No one ever loves
the choices you make. But I mean, you know, Steve, I've
been a sports writer for how many decades. I'm used to being a female
sports writer for so many decades. I'm used to people saying I suck.
It really wasn't a big deal when this happened. And yeah, you do,
you feel the pressure to get it right. But the fun part just
being in a room with these really really interesting people who who always treated me
with respect, You treated me as an equal, and and yeah I loved
it. I loved every minute of it. Plus you had all those eminems
come on, Eminem's and pizza for a whole weekend. How could you go?
Right? Pizza? We had like shrimp, we had a Oh well,
yes, Steve underestimated you guys. I guess I should have known that,
right. Yeah are cheap. Yeah, you guys are a champagne.
You know what people don't understand is none of us. You don't get paid
for being in the committee. I mean, they fly you out there,
but you put in your own hours and you do it because you love college
football. So that was one of the great perkses you Eminem's and shrimp.
So you know. Okay, So now that you're on the sidelines of this
thing, how are you watching this? How are you paying attention to what's
going on? Having been in the room kind of having an idea how things
go. You know, It's kind of like when we ask a coach,
how do you watch footballer? How do you watch basketball? How are you
watching it? I watch it? Yeah, I'm watching it much more sort
of casually, which is kind of fun. You know. I was always
so focused on every little moment and every little play. It's kind of fun
to sit back. But you know, now I'll be I'll look at the
results Sunday and probably privately, you know, criticize the committee like everybody else.
No, I won't. Well, they do a great job, but
it's fun to be kind of looking at it from a different perspective. Well,
are you kind of doing your own type of situation here? Absolutely?
Absolutely, I sort of have my ideas of who I think should be there.
But honestly, there's some games this weekend. You know, you mentioned
Florida State, I mentioned Alabama. There's a lot of weird things that could
happen this weekend that could turn everything upside down. You know, just as
someone who covered the PAC twelve for so many years and you know sad to
see its demise, it would be fun, I think to have a Pac
twelve team in there. But we'll see if that happens, you know,
So before you go, Before you go, I just wanted to talk to
you real quick. Come up the UA football team. You covered obviously the
state for a long time. Your thoughts on that because it doesn't happen very
often. Oh so impressed with get Fish what he's done there. I mean
nine and three and Frank fifteenth on the CFP pole. I'm going to get
to a bowl game. The turnaround, so quickly has been so impressive,
and especially you know, watching the struggles here and what's happening in Tempe and
that they're trying to turn things around. I think it's really exciting. You
know, you're getting all the riches. You've got the basketball program, now
you've got the football program down there. I think it's great to see though.
Yeah, Okay, Paula as usual, thank you very much. Great
to talk to you guys. Yeah, a lot of fun. Thank you.
We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens, thank you. Yeah,
great stuff, great stuff, fun kind of Well the other thing I
got, they got shrimp and yeah, yeah, shrimp and M and m's.
I'm all in. We got Well, we go to we go to
the NCAA tournament. We get popcorn, bananas and chips and cookies and chips
and all the all the all the all the potato chips you can stuff into
a Nancy double a cup. Have you seen have you seen? You haven't
seen them in a while. What do you guess you could you monitor some
stuff at the tournament. We're not the best looking group, and the sports
writers come out, you're per you're a pretty rasty group and and you know
that the at the at the tournament in San Jose, Man, it was
tight quarters press row. It was very tight quarters bodies in those yeah,
yeah, all right, okay, well that was a lot of fun.
That was a lot of fun for joining us and giving us some insight as
I got to feel, I feel like a different perspective. I don't think
I don't have teams have changed. No, it just gives you an idea
of what what they go through and that they're having fun. I think that's
the coolest thing, that it's fun for those guys. All right, let's
get out of here. We'll take a break. We'll be right back.
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Steve Raverera and Jacin Salves they have their eye on the ball on Tucson
Sports stag Chat Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to let with
all here at Fox Sports fourteen could be un Steve, He's Jay get Kevin
with us. Got about fifteen minutes left for this segment about fun to get
with Paula. Yep. I love, I love how hoping she was about
you know what goes on back there, because that that's a big deal.
You know, it's so many times these times things are such a mystery.
But you're like NCAA tournament, it's such a mystery, you know, it's
as to how it gets done, and it's such a monumental thing. Sure
like I I would wonder you have twelve twelve twelve angry jurors? Is that
with thee thirteen angry jeers, and you know that there are probably discussions that
you don't want to have or arguments you don't want to have, but you
have to get through them, not maybe animated, maybe not because they're intelligent
people. They're they're educated intelligence, but I'm sure some of them had to
go there. Yeah, I was wondering that during the interview, how they
how they like avoid just exhausted and just be giving up on their point.
Well, and you know, there have to be some of the conversations have
to be uncomfortable, right, some of the discussions because it involves some of
their teams. Yeah, and they if also but also, you know,
you got you, You're got. You're gonna have people who say this is
who I think it is, no matter what you say, right, because
my opinion is my opinion. Because my opinion is my opinion. I think
I got it right, and I should be valued. I should be valued.
But you know, she also said that she, you know, she
felt like she people valued her opinion, she was respected, she was treated
equally as everybody else, and you know that's important. And I think in
the end, you know, these are all pretty much smart people, right,
so they're not gonna be butt heads, but they're also gonna be they're
very smart people who are gonna believe in what they believe. They're gonna be
convicted in there. In there, I think it's gonna don't you think it's
gonna It eventually shakes out and there's only a couple of key games that have
to it. It might not because because the scenario I was listening to on
the way in Okay, George's undefeated. Let's say they went, Washington is
undefeated. Let's say they win. Okay, they're in Florida State's undefeated.
Should they get in that they're they're kind of a question, but Michigan in
Michigan's okay, let's say let's just say the three those three Washington, Michigan,
Uh, Georgia. That you say, if those three win and stand
defeated, those three have to be in. After that then, depending on
how things go, you could have a choice between Texas, uh, you
know, Florida State uh. Or let's say let's say Michigan and Washington are
the only undefeated teams. You know, Georgia beats Alabama, Texas, you
know Texas wins. Just you know, you you're You're trying to squeeze six
teams into, you know, into only four slots, and how do you
the hell do you do that? Somebody's in the end, somebody's gonna say
you got it wrong and that that's the thing that kind of sucks about it.
And that's every year. But I think your point is that this year
there's a lot more legitimate. There's a lot of those teams that are complaining
on the Let me ask you, guys, have you seen Florida State play
much? Yeah? Outside, I saw in the first game lsu wing to
beat LS. That was a surprise, right, you don't know how good
l U is blah blah blah. But I saw them that game. I
haven't seen him since. I saw him a couple of times after that.
I wasn't impressed. Okay, here, so are they deserving? I mean,
you've only watched them twice? Is that enough simple size for you to
discermine that me personally? No, I've seen I've seen Georgia Little the team
I've seen, and I've always been impressed from Miss Oregon because they're they're here
so in Alabama a few times, but outside of Oregon, I you know,
I don't deserve to be on that committee. Well, if you're on
the committee, you'd have the iPad, because Mark Harlan t talk to us
about that as well, he's on the committee. Now mentioned that you get,
you know, in all your spare time you're watching games. Sure you
know, and so you got to know more, which you should, right,
But it's kind of like, you know, when when I when I
was covering football, I was I was a voter on the Football Writers All
America team. I spent my Saturday watching games and taking notes on guys,
you know, because you have a responsibility to do that. I've I've done
that quite a bit, not taking notes so much, but watching a lot
watching games where like when when what's his name, Jaden Daniels, all of
a sudden he's doing all this stuff and like everybody's saying he's a Heisman candidate.
Well, now I have to pay attention. I have to look to
see for myself. Am I going to vote for this guy or not.
I've seen enough of Michael Pennix, I've seen enough of Bonnicks. I've watched
a bunch of of of Marvin Harrison Junior. You know, I watched a
bunch of J. J. McCarthy. Is he you know, is he
a viable candidate like most everybody else. I'm down to four guys, all
right, and those are the four guys that I just mentioned. You know,
I can't I can't say you know who I'm voting for, but I
I feel like I've got a good sense of who it should be. But
I have to wait for these games to play out. One of the things
about that is Jayden Daniels isn't playing this week, right, right, And
then people have already voted. A bunch of people have voted, and and
and you know, and you know that a bunch of people have voted.
I was listening to Wilner's podcast. He said five to six things, said,
people have voted No. Five six of the voter something like that are
from the East. So we talked about that the other day. I mean,
he said, and he said, I wouldn't be surprised if a ton
of those people have already voted, which means they voted for Data and Daniels,
which makes no sense. And how how many of the states. Why
would they not wait for all the games to be played? Not everything's equal
and they're not going to do that. They're not gonna If not, they're
freaking Massachusetts not still waiting for the for the rest of the game. They
play in Massachusetts at two in the morning, bone Nicks is thorn his fourth
touchdown, and they're not They're not going to see do you know that?
Well, no, it's a one of That game is at eight o'clock East
Coast time. It's a six o'clock game. No, but I'm talking about
during the season. Yes, No, of course, of course, of
course. Well, those same two guys, those Wilder and Canzana we're making
we're talking about the year that that that McCaffrey didn't win the High Shepford love
they love. Key was hands down the best player in the country. But
half of his games, and particularly in the first half of the season or
seven thirty West Coast game Pacific and so people didn't see him, and and
and and and and he didn't get the award. Yeah. If there's not
a bias, that's a bias. That's bas Yeah. Yeah, dude.
You know what, if you want to be a voter, do the work,
true, that's all you have true, do the work. You know
that if you want to be if you want to be a voter, stay
up and watch the damn game. Yeah, you know that it doesn't happen.
Doesn't happen. There's six hundred, like six hundred voters. Yeah no,
yeah, yeah, that's why you have one. Yeah, that's why
I have one. Exactly. We'll see you are correct, but we'll see
what happens. Can we roll or not roll? I think we can so
yeah. Yeah, so showed the shot. Tommy had a press conmerce and
I thought he was a different Tommy. This is just me thinking that he
was a little chippy today in a good way, not a bad way,
but a little chippier. And you saw no, and then you said,
oh maybe, right, Okay. I called Bruce and he said, yeah,
okay, maybe because he had a lot of weird answers to a lot
of fun questions, play a cup of the clips that made you think.
First of all, he had just he had just gone through a discussion of
Kylon Boswell and why he thinks he's doing so well? Uh Mike Lev.
Michael Lev brought up the fact that Boswell is turning up on mock drafts.
Okay, okay, and uh no number five and uh he so he asked
him, do you pay attention to the mock drafts or do you have this
conversation with the guys. I live in reality. I don't live in mock
or hypothetical world, so you know what, I don't at all. And
you know, there's just I mean that there's nothing of value that's going to
help a player reading his name in a mock draft early in a basketball season.
So you know, we don't address it. And you know when we
when we get down towards the end of the season or in the postseason and
they're considering their options, we go through everything when when it matters. That
may have been the best answer to a question like that I've ever heard,
because that was fantastic, Uh, Mark, drafts mean nothing in November then,
just like they mean nothing because something could happen in between then and and
it's like the Miles Simon thing, and I us bring that up all the
time. Everyone thinks he should have left after ninety seven because his name was
hot. Okay, some people say he should stay because he's gonna be better,
Well, he's he wasn't an NBA guy. If you're not an NBA
guy, not an NBA guy. So Boswell, Okay, maybe he is,
maybe isn't, but he doesn't live in Marks neither do I That was
funny. That was great. That was like a really good one line.
Well, he went even better with h He was asked about Johnson stock and
that his stock has gone up. Here's what he had to say. I
mean, I don't know what his his stock is and I didn't know he
was a stock that was traded on a market. So Sad is a good
basketball player and and you know what, key Shot is one of these guys
who's best days are ahead of him. And Keyshod came from a really solid
program, and you know, and and he's really improved as a basketball player
over the course of his college career. And you know, now, you
know, maybe he's finally at a stage of his development where he's able to
kind of take advantages of the next step. And maybe a little bit of
it's playing at Arizona, but maybe a lot of it's just key Shod where
he's at in his career and he's ready. So what was your response?
Oh, well, he was about halfway through his his answer there, and
I was like, Tommy could have used the nap today. He just seems
really short and like not right, not a lot of fluffed. These answers
very direct, almost like funny, but great quotable. Yeah, come on,
he's a reporter's dream. This is super direct, very quotable. He's
been to me. That's a little chippy for for Tommy, who's very happy
most of the time. But those are great quotes, great quotes, short,
concise. You want to stock. I don't live in mock Okay,
so we're not evaluators. We're not mock guys, mockoff guys. Is he
an NBA? He might, He might be a twiner, he might be
like a Michael kind of n He's got to shoot from guy, he's gonna
be without question. Hey if if last year's star here Zulas cannot do it
and he was pretty good. Uh is a different, totally different player.
He doesn't shoot well from the perimeter, and he's a garbage guy. He's
a Dennis Rodman. It's a light guy. But you know what makes those
two players different, in my opinion, is is what who Johnson? And
what makes them different as NBA prospects is what you can't teach to bellis you
can teach Johnson. Right, So he Johnson is not a very good shooter.
You can teach that to Bellus. Not a great athlete, right,
but he doesn't like to mix it up either. That's true. But I
think Johnson has much more of an NBA prototype to his belt, I think
to his game. But I think with some tweaks he could if he was
if he was two inches maybe three. Just he's six y seven, all
right, that's it. That's a three guy in the remember the remember the
game. Now, it's not an inside out, it's an outside game.
Yeah, he's not an outside guy. I mean there's there's ways to get
in and fit in, uh within the NBA, and you have that athleticisn't
play so hard. But that's what I'm saying. I think he needs a
tweak a little bit to avoid being a tea for the rest of the Well,
he's not going to become a better shooter here because you've got four we
got four months to become a better shooter. It's it's either working on your
own and then right after the season is over, work your ass off to
become a better shooter. Because but let's say he's twenty two to twenty one
years old, whatever, You've had a lot of time. You've had a
lot of time to practice on your own to become a better shooter, haven't
you. Yeah, to some extent, some players are what they are exactly
exactly. And this is not a knock on him. No, he's a
great player. Yeah, yeah, to me, he's to me, he's
not a Ben a Deva Again, he's a combination Ben and Davison and and
Junie Edgerson of both. A tough dude who can bounce and he can get
rebound, can do things. Bennett couldn't score. Bennett was a garbage guy.
Yeah, a fantastic garbage, great garbage guy, jump out of the
gym. And but he could couldn't shoot well. And and and key shot
is he he's trying to shoot, He's shooting something from the outside. He's
got to get a lot better better yeah, right, And and you know
he had he I mean he did. He played nicely against Michigan State and
he made he made a couple of three pointers. So win without him,
yeah, exactly exactly. We have our music break yeah, yeah, already,
fast man, God, Okay, all right, breaking news here at
the top of the hour. Stick around