Speaker 1: What's up everybody, and welcome to It just means more
football and coffee. I am Rob Williams and this is
the first ever Craigliss show. And so while Craig was
able to hold it down for me all summer while
I was out, we're gonna hold it down for him
tonight as he is out a little bit busy. But
you can find me on social at Rob Williams GCP
and at mcmichaeh seven if you want to look him
up as well. Tonight we have a very very special guest,
as we have Jake Crane from Crane and Co with
us tonight. You can find him at Jake Crane Underscore
on X or just follow it at Crane Company. It's
really really a good opportunity for us to talk to
you specifically because of where we are in the college
football layout. Just so you know, I know that our
show is relatively new, but we seek to kind of
create the vibe that we're the older, tired guys sipping
a cup of coffee for me another cup and let's
talk ball. So we're strictly sec that's why it just
means more football and coffee. Jake, how's it going? It's
a crazy, crazy week. But for you, yeah, what's going on?
Speaker 2: Oh man, I mean it's a ton going on in
the sports world. I mean, you have signing Day on Wednesday, obviously,
the college football playoff reveal, we got the championship games
this weekend, the NFL really starting the playoff pictures starting
to come into focus. So a little bit of everything
in the in the sports world, and watching what the
SEC is doing to the ACC right now and this
SEC ACC challenge. It's just never thought I'd have to
ask myself the question is the SEC more dominant in
football or basketball? And I mean Joe Lenardi had twelve teams.
I know, look, it's it's early. Lot lock can happen,
but had twelve SEC teams making the NCAA tournament, which
is just insane. If you grew up watching SEC hoops,
it is.
Speaker 1: And I think that SEC baseball would also like to and.
Speaker 2: Softball and Jim.
Speaker 1: Into that argument. It really it really does. It really
does mean more. And I think it's important for us
as we look at this college football playoff rankings reveals.
As you said, as everybody said, this is the time
we get to use the word penultimate and so we're
going to use it. It's the penultimate rankings, and it's
exciting to see how things are unfolding, But to be
honest with you, it seems extremely inconsistent on my end.
So every show in America has had this argument, right,
should it be Alabama? Should it be South Carolina? Should
it be Ole Miss? And then we get Miami wedged
in between. We've spent a lot of time arguing about
the order. We can still argue about how they're going
to see the final order. Is it going to be
should Ohio State have gotten that home game edge over Tennessee?
And Ward manual says they're not going to move the
teams that aren't playing, So it seems that those that
order is locked in place. My question is is more
one for us to zoom out because we can argue
the specifics of this year up one side and down
the other about this team or that team, but it
seems there's you know, there's nothing we can do about it. Ultimately,
the committee, it has all the power to make the decisions.
What do you think the biggest issues are, if any,
with the current setup in the current structure of how
the college football Playoff is being selected?
Speaker 2: Well, you know you said it earlier. I mean, the
inconsistency is the biggest problem. It's like I used to
tell my dbs. Look, if we're going to be all wrong,
we're all right. If I call a coverage and all
y'all run a different coverage, at least we're running something
sound and everybody knows what to do. So even if
I disagree with how they, you know, go about it,
if there's a consistent methodology to it, then I can
live with it. If you can explain it to me
in terms that you know are logical and makes sense
and follows a certain pattern or metric, then I'm good
with it. The problem I have with our format is
that it's all subjective, when in my eyes, we could
have a beautiful blend of subjectivity and objectivity. Of continue
to say that the perfect formula for me is to
combine a committee and a computer. What do I mean
by that? You know you have twenty five percent of
the pie is your strength of schedule. So you're incentivizing
teams to schedule strong non conference and then obviously the
better your conference is, the stronger your schedule is once
you get into conference place. So that's twenty five percent.
The other twenty five percent should be your win loss
record that should go into it. Wins and losses matter.
It's you know, we look at it now. We can
have arguments against ten and two and nine and three teams,
whether that nine and three teams should be ahead of
that ten and two team, or that ten and two
team should be ahead of that nine and three team.
But I don't think you can argue against eleven and
one verse nine and three. And that's something that I
think the committee's done a good job of, but there's
not a objective way for them to measure it because
they don't tell us really what's in it. The other
twenty five percent, I think is scoring margin ours people
like to say style points. And then the last twenty
five percent can be subjective. You have a committee the
eye test who's playing well right now? You know, what
do you think personally about this team? And by having
the subjective part of it be twenty five percent, it's
not enough to sway everything, but it could be enough
to move a couple teams if the margins are really
tight and we have a scenario like we have now.
But the problem with what we have now is it
opens the door to conspiracy theories, it opens the door
to controversy that they don't tell us the ingredients that
go into the cake. And even when you look up
at the sports analytics company they use to determine strength
of schedule and some of these things they say, they
don't make those numbers public, Like we're not asking where
the spies are in the Western Hemisphere, we're not asking
where the Chinese missile silos are. For you to tell
us that, we just want to know what the numbers
are that are going into this thing. And then they
thow Ward Manuel out there, who every time he talks
it's like stopping to see a car wreck on the
side of the inner state, because he's not a football
guy enough to be able to articulate it well enough
for us to say, you know what, all right, I
get it. You sold me over with what you said
because the inconsistency every week, well, head to head matters, Well,
then this week head to head doesn't matter as much
as you're playing better than this other team, and every
week it's different. So until we get some sort of objective,
you know, majority mixed with that twenty five percent subjectiveness
by guys who actually know football and love the sport.
I use this example today on Cranic Company. If something
is wrong with my kidneys, okay, and I need somebody
to use the eye test to go through it, I
want it to be a doctor. I don't want it
to be the guy who owns the hospital because he
owned the land the hospital was built on. That's not
your forte. I actually feel bad for word manual. Like
if if Neil deGrasse Tyson asked me to come up
and explain why the moon controls the waves in the ocean,
I'm gonna have to give you some generic gobbly goop
because I've got absolutely no idea how that works. That's
what it seems like ward Manuel does when he goes
on there and talks as much as Reees Davis tries
to help him, and God Reeese tries. He tries to
hold his hand and walk him through these things. But
it's either Ward Manuel can't say it because he's worried
about the backlash, or he can't say it because he
doesn't know it well enough to say it. So, you know,
that may be a long winded answer, but I want consistency.
I'm a simple guy. I'm a simple guy. If you
tell me what goes into the cake, I feel much
better about eating it when it comes out of the oven.
But if you don't tell me what goes in the cake,
I can't trust you. Like for example, I'm fine with
Alabama being in. I think Alabama should be in when
you look at Alabama, South Carolina and Old Miss. I
think the Alabama Old Miss argument's a harder one because
they didn't play head to head. But how do you
say that my Alabama should be in front of Miami,
but South Carolina and Ole Miss shouldn't be in front
of Miami. Either you put in Miami there and you
put Bama, O Miss, South Carolina behind them, or you
put Bama Ole Miss, South Carolina or Bama South Carolina
Ole Miss with Miami following them. So I just there's
no good explanation for it. It doesn't make sense. It's
almost like they said, you know what to avoid SEC bias,
let's just put Miami at twelve. So they can't say
we put three SEC teams in a row, when if
they were smart, they would realize if you did put
those three SEC teams in a row, and Bama's the
only one that got in that actually negates SEC bias
because the first two out of the tournament are in
the SEC. So again, look and the Tennessee, Ohio State,
who should host? Thing? I think there's logical, rational argument
on both sides of that. You could convince me either
or of that. There's other instances before that where I
think it could go either way, but this is one
that I look at and it's the most important thing
is who gets in. It's not where they are is important,
especially when you can get a boy and you can host,
or you have to go on the road. But without
a doubt, the most important thing is am I in
or am I not?
Speaker 1: So speaking of the bye weeks, what's your position on
the bye weeks? Because personally, I don't have a problem
with some teams getting getting bye weeks, but the automatic
qualifiers for the conference champions jumping into those bye week
spots is I understand what we were incentivizing, right. We
don't want to We don't want to see the conference
championships go to the wayside and teams be able to
walk away from those type of things and just say, oh,
we're just gonna rest our guys this week now, you're
playing for that bye week, but what you're gonna get
is someone from either the G five or or the
Big twelve that is certainly not one of the top
four teams that's gonna get a buy and skate their
way over top of teams like like in Ohio State
or like a there. I even say, where does Notre
Dame fit into this conversation? And at what point do
we force them to comply? At some point? So I
think I think I have two questions really here. One
is the bye week situation, because I think it's gonna
get restructured, whether we go to fourteen sixteen or some
other form. And what is the what is the match
on the gasoline that causes Greg Sank you to say,
you know what, let's new the whole thing and start
from scratch.
Speaker 2: Well, I think you would have to have multiple guys.
I think it would. It would have to be something
where Greg Sanky and Tony Petiti the SEC are the
Big ten. You know that they put their weight together.
If I'm Tony Patiti, I don't want to change anything
with the way that it worked out this year. As
far as the byes and the automatic bids, I think
that's what you're asking me with the buyes. I do
think there's a simple solution that's a compromise between both parties.
In a perfect world for me, I don't think that.
I think the top twelve teams should get in the
top four teams should get a bye. So you could
have two teams in the big You could have Oregon
and Ohio State if they finish for them, Yeah, like
they get a bye.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 2: I don't think it should be. If you win a
top four conference, you automatically get to buy nine and three.
Clemson if they beat SMU to make them ten and three,
shouldn't get a bye. That's that's not the way that
should work. But if you're somebody that says, and my
co host David Cohone, who raises some good points, it's
a good argument in debate, conference championship games need to matter. Well,
I think they can still matter. Why don't we just
say this, if you win one of your powerful conferences,
you get an automatic bid. Yep, Okay, it doesn't. That
doesn't mean you get a bye. That doesn't mean you're
a top four seed. And you know what, some of
the top four seeds that get the buye are gonna
win their conference championship game, so you really eliminate two
birds with one stone. You don't have to give an
extra automatic bid to somebody else. But if somebody like
Clemson who's nine to three does win, they automatically get it.
We already do that with the group of five. We
should just use that to replace it and the top
twelve teams, which Boise would be in if we did
a top twelve team right now. With the way they
do it, I don't love the way they do it,
but why do we not say, look, here are the
twelve best teams. The top four teams in this get
a bye if you are not one of the top
four teams or you're not in the top twelve, like
if Clemson was thirteen or fourteen, and you win your
conference championship and you're a top four conference, you get
an automatic bid into the College Football Playoff. Because the
bye isn't an automatic bid, you can still just have
four automatic bids and teams can get it. You can
have a team that loses the conference championship that was
at one finish at four and still get a bye,
and the other team get an automatic bid and be
in there. So I think that's kind of the middle
ground or the compromise we could have where conference championship
games still matter, right, but that doesn't necessarily mean that
you get a bye if you win one of those
conference championship games in the top four conferences, because think
about it. If or again our Penn State win, they
would finish in the top four. If Texas or Georgia win,
they would finish in the top four. You look at
the big twelve in the ACC. If SMU wins their conference,
decent chance they could maybe move up, But if they
don't deserve to move up, then they don't get the bye,
but they're automatically in. I think it's a pretty easy solution.
Speaker 1: Is there a world and I know that there's been
lofty dreams and aspirations and you know, different plans that
have been put forth, But is there a world where
we get a central governing body in the next decade
and this looks completely completely different and it truly looks
like an NFL model.
Speaker 2: Well, I think when this breaks off into a super league,
which is going to happen now, the amount of teams
in that super league is it fifty five, is it
fifty because I think there's some teams and we've seen
a lot of movement up right like Cincinnati and Houston,
and we're seeing it right now where there's some group
of five teams that should be Power four teams, and
there's some Power four teams that should be group of
five teams. So to me, that's the most interesting part
of when that breakaway happens. Who's going to be Memphis
should be in the power for with the money they
have and the talent they have. You look at FedEx
behind them, somebody like Wake for us. I don't know,
like I should you be power for So as far
as a centralized governing body, the way I view it
is like this, even if they break off into this
super league, what incentive would they have to change the
committee because it's not like they're losing money. This ain't
the NBA. They're making more and more money every year.
Viewership is at an all time high with nil which
I'm a fan of when it has regulations, but it's
not and you probably can't get them now until we
break off into a super league where you have to
sign up to play in that league and abide by
those rules to transfer portal where there are no guidelines.
We've had all these changes, guys play in eighteen years
because of COVID. We've had all these changes, we have
all this controversy with this committee. Yet the money keeps doubling,
the viewership keeps increasing. So if I'm in control of this,
and I can control what brands get in and what
brands don't, and I'm making more money and I'm more
popular than ever, what incentive do I have to change
anything structurally that I'm doing. Right? If I can sell
you a double cheeseburger that costs me a dollar fifty
to make and it's made with awful ingredients, that's terrible
for you, but you'll buy it for five bucks and
you keep buying more and more of them, why in
God's name would I pay more to make it more equality?
So I think that's kind of where we're at.
Speaker 1: Yep, that I kind of agree with you. It's like
every every media outlet, every person who has a show
like me and you, we're talking along these lines, and
I hear it from different outlets where the gripe is different,
the positioning is different. This person's arguing for Miami. This
person's arguing for Alabama, this person's arguing for Ole miss
this person's arguing for SMU to get in they lose,
or not get in if they lose, or whatever the
case may be. But the centralized thing that everybody says
is that the committee and the inconsistencies of the committee
and this human model that brings so much bias and
flaw is an issue. But it still all comes back
to what you just said, because even the people who
willed the most influence, like yourself, who have a national audience,
who have the ear of so many people, it's only
going to move the needle so far when the money
is still rolling in. And I think that's yeah, money
tell you it doesn't matter how much we can complain
about it or point out that it's an extremely flawed system.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and I mean that's why, like you look
at at some networks and these people go on there
and say these crazy things, and you're watching it, you're like,
how how can this person be on this network and
say these crazy things? Yet that network is making a
ton of money, So it's almost like they're encouraging because look, look,
every consistency is boring. Right. Well, I think another thing
is they look and they're like, you know, well, if
we had this pattern that was consistent and you knew
what was gonna happen, would it be as popular? Would
people would there be this outrage over over you know,
who got in here and who got in there when
you can point to numbers and metrics and say, oh, well,
we know how this is going to play out. I
think it comes down to are you in the business
of causing outrage for clicks and views and the other stuff,
or are you in the business of you love the
sport and you want what's best for the sport. Where
I land is I love the sport and I want
what's best for the sport because I think college football
is so ingrained and so incredibly popular that you couldn't
hurt it. Just like if you do crazy things, people
are going to watch if there's a method to the madness.
I think people are going to watch because the on
the field product has never been better than it is
right now. And if that's the case, you're going to
continue to see the numbers grow because that's what people
care about most, and it's the games. So that's the
the camp that I've fallen.
Speaker 1: I think my only pushback on consistency is boring. I
agree with you to an extent, but the NFL is
built for that parody and built for those consistencies in
terms of you know, who's going to get into the
playoff each year based on who wins the division, who
has the best record that's going to.
Speaker 2: Get It's a great example that I love that we
agree that. That's what I'm saying, like the NFL. When
was the only time the NFL took a hit when
they got political? Overtly political? That is That is viewership fentanyl.
It's what it is. If you get over and look,
we do a sports show for the Daily Wire, but
you won't hear anything about me talking about immigration are vaccines.
The only immigration I'm worried about is the transfer portal.
The only vaccine I'm worried about is if they're ever
gonna call targeting on an offensive player when they put
their head down. So I think, look, people, we love football.
It's our gladiator sport, right, So it's gonna as much
as they try bubble wrap it, but at the end
of the day, on the field, play I think speaks
for itself. We need a consistent model because it's too important.
It's too important to screw up like this.
Speaker 1: Sure, Okay, So Craig and I right for an outlet
called last Word on Sports, and so as an ode
to that, at the end of the show, every week
we do something called the last Word, and so on
this week's last Word, I'm gonna give you just a
second to let us know if the field lands as
it is now. So let's say, for kicks and giggles,
that SMU beats Clemson and everything falls pretty much as
it stands. Who's your dark horse? We know who some
of the favorites are gonna be. Who's the team that
you think maybe makes a run that people aren't talking
about as much?
Speaker 2: I would say dark horse, And it's funny because they're
in the top four, but people talk about them like
they're not. Is Penn State. And for the reason of
Penn State's biggest test came against Ohio State at home,
and they brought in Andy kotal Nikki to come in
from Kansas's voc And before that game, even starting with
West Virginia, the offense looked more creative. They were taking
shots down the field. Drew Aller was blossoming. Then in
the Ohio State game, they got up ten to nothing
because of an early pick six, and they reverted back
to the old Penn State where they just tried to
take the air out of the ball and make it
ugly and just not screw it up. I don't think
they're gonna make that mistake again, And if they open
it up, I think Penn State is talented enough defensively
in the front seven, and they have enough pieces offensively
to be able to win the whole thing. I really
believe that. I think a great test if they're gonna
get back to that is whether or not they do
that against Oregon this weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that I was gonna say the same
as far as the championship game this weekend. I think
that what they do against Oregon is gonna tell us
a lot about what they're sealing. Is because the knock
on James Franklins obviously that he can't win the big game.
We'll see what happens, right, if he can pull something
off and he's still a little bit of confidence. We
both know that ball is played a lot more here
in the mind, just as much as it is played
outwardly on the field, and so if you go into
the game confident it can make a huge difference in
how it goes. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate you, Jake.
Thanks so much for being with us today. Man, always
listening in if you guys want to listen Monday through
Friday at three on a daily wire Crane and Company.
We love listening to you, we love listening to your thoughts,
and I'm just thankful that you be able to come
on and talk to us tonight. We'll see what happens.
Thanks to God, of course.
Speaker 2: Rob. I'm going to bring a cup of coffee next time.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, I didn't ask you that we start every
show with that. But it's late at night, so I
wasn't expecting you to necessarily have a coffee in your cup.
If you have a drink and you're getting ready to
watch the Alburn and Duke game as we're recording here,
I hope you're enjoying it and maybe you'll see a
big one for your tigers.
Speaker 2: Hey, we'll see, man, we'll see. It's a long season.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, Rob, Yeah, we'll see you all right, Okay,
welcome back to It just means more football and coffee again.
I'm Rob Williams. What an incredible time talking to Jake
Crane reacting to the College Football Playoff penultimate rankings as
we look forward to College Championship weekend and everything breaking
loose in terms of setting up the first ever twelve
team college Football Playoff. Really great conversation, just zooming back
and looking at the big picture. I want to zoom
back in at this point and just talk about some
of the inconsistencies that we see. Head to head does
matter or does it not matter? We have Alabama ranked
ahead of South Carolina, Ole Miss ranked ahead of South Carolina.
I think that there are positive arguments for both of
those things to be true, but there's also an argument
for South Carolina to be ranked ahead of both of
those teams. And the problem is that by putting Alabama
and Ole Miss ahead of South Carolina, you've stated that
head to head is the primary criteria for ranking these teams. However,
earlier in the season, you have a Tennessee team who
beat an Alabama team and has the same record ranked
behind Alabama. You have South Carolina up ahead of an
LSU team that they went down to when the records
were the same at that point in the season, and
the statement from Ward manual is South Carolina's moving in
a different direction than this LSU team is we see
them moving forward. So the inconsistencies are crazy. We can
go on and on and on and name the things
that we see the committee doing that are just incredibly inconsistent.
So it's my opinion that it's time to blow it up.
It's time to get rid of people completely in this process.
I think that Jake put forth a great plan. As
we listen to him talk about wins and losses, as
we listen to him talk about even style points, and
we definitely listen to them talk about strength of schedule
and how we can incorporate computers. If Craig was here,
he would say, do one third BCS computer style, one
third AI making sense of the numbers, and then one
third a committee coming in. I don't want to even
see that. I'm ready for the NFL style. I'm ready
for these teams to break off and to form a
super league where we have clear cut rules, outlines, guidelines,
whatever we want to call them, that show us how
you win a division of some sort and you make
it into the College Football Playoff. There can easily be
wild cards or at large or whatever we want to
call them, because in this super league, teams will be
playing by the same standards. Now, the question comes up,
if we create a super league, what is the trickle
down effect? Because we're gonna pull out the Big Ten
and the SEC teams, Jake points out, are there teams
that need to fall out of those conferences that maybe
don't belong in the Power for maybe they don't belong
in this super league. But we're also gonna pull up
other teams. There are teams from the ACC, like Clemson.
There are teams from perhaps the Big Twelve that would
get a look. So the super League can't just consist
of the thirty four teams that make up the Big
Ten in the SEC. There will have to be other
teams that come along with them to make make up
that league. And then you're gonna have to divide those
teams out, and we're gonna have to create something called divisions,
which the Big Ten and SEC and the Big Twelve
have gone away from, the AC ACC has gone away from,
so we don't have these divisions, and that has created
a major problem. A good friend of the show, J. C. Sherbert,
pointed out today on another show, I was listening to that.
The model in the SEC is going to be the
one seven model, and the luck of the draw of
what seven teams you get on your SEC schedule in
this current structure is going to determine which teams make
or miss the college football Playoff, because if you get
a lucky draw like Texas did, then you're gonna have
a much which is your path if you have a
good team. If you get a difficult draw like Georgia
did or like Oklahoma did, you can see the variants
in the roster. That strength of schedule causes you to
fall a couple of times like Georgia or to five
hundred like Oklahoma. So we've got to get out of
that being the determining factor. And I think in a
super league you can mix and match these teams and divisions.
You can shake the divisions from year to year and
ultimately it comes out to be fair. I'll go back
to the NFL as a Patriots fan, and I can
state my fandom in the NFL very clearly on this podcast,
because this is an SEC football podcast, So it doesn't
matter what team I pull for in the NFL as
a Patriots fan, we and I say we as a fan,
as a fan of you know, twenty five years of
the New England Patriots, watching them with six rings, six
Super Bowl Trophies, six Lombardes in the case the goat
Tom Brady leading them to these championships. But they had
a week division. They had a week division. You know, Miami,
the Jets, the Bills. Historically, over the past twenty five years,
we've seen the rise of the Bills as of late.
We've seen the Dolphins be a little more competitive as
of late. We've seen the Jets well bring in some
big names. But what we have not seen is the
AFC East be a powerhouse for a long time. And
so the tom Brady beat the Bills thirty three times
in a row. It was just not a very competitive division.
So you knew you were going to have cooked in
six games against opponents that were quote unquote lesser than
That's going to happen in the Super League in college
football as well. But everything is cyclical. Look at the
Patriots now, the greatest franchise in professional sports for two decades,
not gonna make the playoffs, had a number three pick
last year and is in the running for number one
again this year. At the bottom of the barrel. Look
at the division, who was the worst team for years
and years the bills.
Speaker 2: They've cycled up.
Speaker 1: The NFL has set up for that. And in a
world like college football, where fan bases are loyal, they
spend a lot of money, they spend a lot of time.
They have stuck it out for generations. It is not
the time to continue to make the rich richer and
to feed into big brands just because it's going to
make a little more money for the network. The network
will make just as much money if we create a
super league and parody comes into play. Alabama fans are
spoiled by their success. They will soon learn that because
Nick Saban is gone and what they have witnessed is
an unprecedented run, that although they may still be one
of the top programs in the country and they may
experience lots of success, they will not experience the level
of success that they experience under Nick Saban. It's impossible.
We won't see that again in our lifetime from Alabama
or any other franchise. So they'll survive.
Speaker 2: They'll still buy.
Speaker 1: Their tickets, they'll still tune in, they'll still be watching,
they'll still attend games, they'll still travel to playoff games
in Tuscaloosa or across the country, even if they're not elite.
It's time to blow it up. It's time to get
rid of humans. It's time to get rid of bias.
It's time to get rid of subjectivity. It's time to
get rid of the debates. The debates are bringing eyeballs,
they're getting clicks. Dare I say, they're making money, but
they're not any fun for any of us. Teams at
the top have to be tired of hearing the whining
and complaining of fan bases, the bickering back and forth.
Let us get the real best teams into the playoff.
Speaker 2: We need to see the twelve.
Speaker 1: Best teams, the fourteen best teams, the sixteen best teams,
whatever we're gonna end up going to. And the only
way we can do that is to get rid of
these conferences that are in no way, shape or form comparable.
We use the term power flour over and over and
over again, and the power four does not exist. There's
really a power one. But I'm going to throw the
Big ten a bone and give us a power two,
the Big twelve. In terms of strength of schedule, the
acc in terms of strength of schedule, can come nowhere
close to what the SEC and the Big Ten have
to offer. And to that point, if we look at
teams in the Big Ten, you've got you've got powerhouses
I'm using air quotes like Penn State. You've got up
and comers like Indiana, whose schedules this year featured one
ranked opponent one one ranked opponent, and in the case
of Indiana, you lost that game. Let's take a look
at Penn State. Let's see what ranked matchups they had.
Illinois that's a win, Ohio State that's a loss. So
excuse me, I'll correct myself. Two ranked matchups one and
one only two opportunities. We're not talking top ten teams.
We're talking top twenty five ranked team two on the
schedule for Penn State in the Big Ten championship game.
You heard it, Jake Crane's darkhoyd dark horse. In the
college football playoffs, we can get rid of these soft
conferences that don't offer any competition week in and week out.
We could say the same thing about Texas in the SEC,
and that goes back to the one seven model. They
got They got a lucky draw, just like Indiana got
a lucky draw, just like Tennessee got a lucky draw.
Then you have teams like Alabama, who has all the
bias in the world working for them, all the brand
recognition in the world working for them, but they also
have working for them their strength of schedule and how
they performed against top ranked teams. Look at Georgia's schedule
this year. Nothing comes close to the ranked matchups that
they had Georgia. Georgia should be the number two team
in the country right now if we really look at
what they've done and who they've done it against. I
can't take anything away from Oregon because they're undefeated and
ultimately something has to be said for winning every single game.
But what's gonna happen, and Shane Beemer said it today
in this press conference, is that non conference games that
offer competition are going to start to be canceled. Coaches
and ads are going to start to take a long
and hard look at who it is that they're putting
on the schedule, because it doesn't matter who you lose
to as long as you win the games in front
of you. This committee has shown that in the current structure,
you're going to get in So that's where we are.
This is where we're looking at. We include subjectivity and
bias and inconsistency, or we create the NFL light, which
is where college football has been trending for a long time.
We're already on the slope, We're already sliding there. We're
going to get a super league. We're going to have
a governing body in the center of this thing. It
is very likely that Greg Sankee is going to be
in the center of that. Why are we prolonging the process.
Let's get it done. This has been It just means
more football and coffee. I know you'll be thankful to
have Craig back next time. So it's not just me
screaming at my microphone. Maybe I'm a little fired up.
But now it's time to see who the best conference
in the country.
Speaker 2: Really is, because we have a few little.
Speaker 1: Championship games left and then we'll get the final rankings
and soon, my friends, as I sit here on December
the fourth, two thousand twenty four, we are but two
weeks and two days away from the first ever playoff
game in a college football twelve team playoff. And then
then all bets are off and we'll see which conference
really does reign supreme For us here, it just means
more football and coffee. For me, this playoff is more
about conference versus conference than it is about team versus team.
So if the committee will allow us not to have
conferences eliminate themselves by giving SEC on SEC and Big
Ten on Big Ten matchups in the first round, We're
gonna figure this thing out and then we'll see who
has the bragging rights. Then we'll see where it just
means more. I'm Rob Williams at Rob Williams GCP on
all platforms, at me Micah seven. To find Craig, you
can find us on grid Iron Coast on x College
grid Iron Coast to Coast is the network, on Apple
podcast and on Spotify. If you want to look us up,
Listen to our show, Listen to our network shows, the
family of shows that we have here at College Gridiron
Coast to Coast catch up on everything college football heading
into Championship weekend. Thanks again to Jake Crane. Go check
out Crane and Company Monday through Friday at three o'clock
on all of their platforms as well. It's been a
great night. We'll talk to you guys next time.