Speaker 1: It's time to celebrate the greatest team sport known to man,
where modern day gladiators collide for all the glory on
the grid. I let's talk some college football on Cougar
Sports with Ben Cridle.
Speaker 2: Welcome Vancouver Sports.
Speaker 3: One of three nine nine eight point three espavan. I'm
Inford of broadcasting from our Banter orwellth Studios Baterwell dot com.
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Speaker 2: So thank you, Ben, love and appreciate you Blaine.
Speaker 3: It's been awesome working with you over the last year
and appreciate all you do for the student athletes and
for our listeners.
Speaker 4: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be a part of
this community.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Love you, Blain.
Speaker 3: We'll talk some college football in this segment with a
college football insider here momentarily going to be brought to
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Speaker 2: Let's get out to the Hotline.
Speaker 3: Welcome in Jake Crane to the show from the Crane
and Company, Jake.
Speaker 2: How you live it?
Speaker 6: Oh Man doing fantastic Actually got out of Nashville and
fled to a little bit of a better place because, man,
I don't think we're gonna have power for another week,
so I had had to get out of there.
Speaker 2: So then, what have you been doing with like the show?
Speaker 3: Obviously, you know recently for people don't know, you were
up with Daily Wire before. ON three just picked up
your show and you guys have been broadcasting from where
through this process?
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, you know ON three has a elite studio
that's almost done, so we'll be doing it out of
there here in probably about a week and a half.
But we've really kind of been doing just our remote setup,
waiting on that to get done. And then obviously the
power goes out where we're at in Nashville, so I
had to drive three hours south. I'm gonna be doing
the show here for the next couple days, but we'll
be in the brand new studio here in about a
week and a half and we're fired up about it.
Speaker 3: Love it man, Well, appreciate all that you do. I
want to just kind of level set here. College football
season is done right. We got a national champion Indiana,
one of the best stories ever, comebacks, breakthroughs, underestimated stories
in college football history. How would you describe the twenty
twenty five season in the state of college football right now?
Speaker 6: Well, I think the state of college football is two
things can be true at once. That's the way I
put it. Obviously, the popularity of the sport when you
look at the viewership numbers including the National Championship game,
are through the roof. But let's be honest, I think
the only thing that could kill the love for college
football is an asteroid are the aliens, So it's kind
of hard to screw that up. But you know, at
some point, and again I'm not an anti nil person.
I'm not an anti having the ability to transfer person,
but it's gotten to the point I think where it's
out of control in that there's no guidelines, there's no
real precedent, and you know, I feel like I'm basically
capitulating to the fact that they've got to be employees,
Like that's the only way. I don't see another way
to fix this, because they're not two sided contracts. There's
really no consequence for one party on the contract, and
you can't really in a financial agreement if they are
not employees and it's an employment agreement. So as much
as it makes me nervous and as much as I
wish we weren't to this point, I don't want to
let perfect get in the way of better. They need
to go ahead and be made employees so they can
go through the same type of contract situation that we
go through here in the real world.
Speaker 7: I just think reached that point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's uh, it's hard because the the fact that
Indiana won the national championship right would speak to and
that that Miami at ten seed made it to the
national championship as well in the expanded playoff format, who
hasn't won a national championship in a long time.
Speaker 2: In the coming out of the ACC would let lead
some people to believe, hey, this is good for the sport.
Speaker 3: We are in a better state now than we've ever
been because the college football called cabal, the cartel no
longer reigns uh with with power right and uh corruption right,
limiting the little guy, uh, the outsider from getting into
the big boys club.
Speaker 2: But on the other hand, there is a lot of chaos.
Speaker 3: There is a lot of of craziness that's going on
that it goes unchecked, and so, uh, there's definitely chaos.
But also having the the underdo story of Indiana, I
mean that has to make you optimistic about the future.
Speaker 6: Right well, I mean from a parody standpoint, you're you're
getting the parody. I mean, we had two group of
five teams make a twelve team playoff, which I've got
problems with. But the parody argument is, and I look,
I am from the South. A lot of people in
the South think that football is ours. I love football enough.
I want it to be everybody's. I want people to
love it like we love it in the South, on
the West Coast and in the North and these other places.
I want that and you can achieve that through parody.
So that part of it I've got absolutely no problem with.
I actually encourage it. But as far as as the
nil stuff we were talking about, that's a total mess.
I will say though. As crazy as the nil stuff
and the transfer portal is what's even crazier is everybody
keeps arguing about the number of teams that should be
in the postseason. And I get it, but that's not
even the biggest problem. The way we pick the teams
is a disaster. So it's like if there's a car
wreck and somebody who's got a broken hand and to
collapse lungs, you don't work on the broken hand first.
You take care of the most catastrophic injury.
Speaker 7: And for some reason.
Speaker 6: We're not taking care of that. People just they talk
about it during the season and then forget about it.
The way we pick teams is asinom to the point
where people are making fun of Notre Name because Notre
Dame got a piece of paper sign that said, if
we finish in the top twelve, we should make the
twelve team playoffs. Well that's how it should be for everybody.
What are we doing, Like, I don't understand how it's
crazy we don't do that.
Speaker 3: There's a lot to really evaluate in the selection process.
There's objective to the points, there's subjective committee points like
you know, how much it should should it be based
off of analytics, almost like a BCS algorithmic structure, and
how much of it should be human nature committee based
voting and decision making.
Speaker 6: So, and I'm going to try not to be too
long winded here, but I think I fixed it. To
be honest, I think what we need to have is
you need to have half objective, and I've got a
formula for that. It's pretty easy and half subjective on
the objective part. And we can argue about the variables
that go into strength of schedule and strength of record.
But let's say that you take strength of and I'm
no mathematician, believe me, ben ask any teacher I ever had.
Once they start putting letters in it, I'm screwed. But
you take strength of schedule plus strength of record and
you divide it by the number of games you played,
and the lower number that it gets spit out the better.
Like in golf. That does two things. It gives you
a formula that we all know that, the coaches know that,
the ads know that, the commissioners know, so you know
out of schedule. The second thing it does it incentivizes
playing in the conference championship game because you don't have
to be goodwill hunting to figure out that if you
divide something by thirteen, it's going to be less than
if you divide it by twelve, therefore making your objective
ranking higher regardless of what happens in that game. The
second thing we need to do is have a committee,
but not a committee made up of people that are
getting paid currently by institutions that are eligible for the postseason.
That you cannot. That's a conflict of interest. So the
only reason North Carolina got into the men's basketball tournament
last year for being honest, because Bubba Cunningham's ahead of
the committee. You cannot be getting paid by a school
that is eligible and be on the committee. So you
pick whoever you want, but you can't be affiliated with that.
They have a ranking that is made public and in
the meetings and the ranking reveals are live streamed. You
take one through fourteen because fourteen teams should make the playoff.
Eleven should play fourteen, twelve should play thirteen. Plug those,
then there's our twelve team tournament. We can rock and roll.
But whatever ranking you have by your name, so BYU
is nine, that is nine. And remember the lower the
number the better. So the higher you are ranked and aggregate,
the better you are ranked, the lower your number will be.
So if we just did that, I think we can
fix it. But we're too stupid to do that.
Speaker 3: Hey, you know, would you have rather had the expansion
to like sixteen, or did you like the fact that
the committee essentially voted to keep it at twelve.
Speaker 6: I'm I know that when we go to sixteen, we're
gonna go to twenty four. And what wordes me is
everybody talks about watering down the regular season, but they
talk about it in the wrong way because you can't
advocate for player safety and then add seven playoff games like,
you just can't do that. So if you go past sixteen,
now we're talking about having to eliminate a regular season game,
and their reasoning will be, well, we played eleven games
for fifty, so we're really going back to the north.
I don't want that. I like the twelve game regular
season schedule. I think anything past sixteen, which we're gonna
go to eventually, is going to start eating in to
the amount of regular season games that are played. And
that's what worries me.
Speaker 3: Jay Crane here on your Utah ESPN or Radio Newculo
College Football segment brought to you by Dental Pros of
Utah Dentalprosiutah dot Com. I want to ask you because
Indiana obviously one of the most underrated teams in the
ap Pole era, meaning you know, look they I mean,
they've been one of the worst P four teams in
college football playoff history, college football history. I was looking
at some of the data here though, in the last
six years, the teams that started outside of the Ape
Pole and entered and State fixated in the top twenty
five at the end of the season.
Speaker 2: You know, who are they and why are they underrated?
Speaker 3: BYU is the number one most underrated team in the
modern era and even in the ap pole era if
you go back, why is it that BYU is always
starting outside of the top twenty five but ends up
inside the twenty five at the end of the season.
I mean because BYU top fifty and wins are sorry,
top ten and wins in the last fifty years, and
I believe over the last six years are also in
the top ten in wins. They had eleven in twenty twenty, ten,
in twenty twenty one, eight in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: They had a dip in twenty twenty three. First year Big.
Speaker 3: Twelve, they went five and seven. Then they had eleven
and twelve the last two seasons. Why is it that
they're underrated?
Speaker 6: Do you think, well, you know, the ap poles it's
it's a joke. Half the people in there couldn't wouldn't
know a football.
Speaker 7: If you see what Adam that happened.
Speaker 6: But way too many people and the wrong people vote
in the ap pole, so that polls disasters. Thank god,
it has no technical bearing. Even though I think the
rankings look at the apeople because they marror themselves a lot.
That's what worries me. The problem I think when it
comes to BYU is not enough national people are people
that love this sport because I know BYU fans and
the State of Utah y'all are nuts about But I
got so much respect, and I would say this if
I didn't come on the show. I've got a ton
of respect for the State of Utah's love for and
knowledge of football. But again, nationally, even though BYU's got
a ton of tradition, I don't think they get the
same brand bump Man.
Speaker 7: I don't.
Speaker 6: I think BYU has to prove it before anybody believes,
as opposed to other teams. People just believe without them
having to prove it. That's what I think the problem
lies in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're spot on in that regard, And
would you include in your algorithm your subjective and algorithmic methodology.
Would you include the A people into the subjective or
the objective component?
Speaker 2: Because it is a metric, right, it isn't ranking.
Speaker 6: I mean, you'd have to put it in the subjective,
but I'd put it in the stupid subjective part of subjective.
Speaker 2: I love it, man, crazy.
Speaker 6: Joch like me, I was an I coached high school
for one year as a substitute teacher. That you think
I knew half the stuff they were telling the seniors
in high school?
Speaker 8: Like you didn't need me teaching the.
Speaker 6: Class like some of these people. We don't need you
teaching the class. We just need you to show up
to the class and shut up and listen and maybe
we'll ask you something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it. Hey, best way to support you
how you do it?
Speaker 3: And in on the platforms, like let's promote you a
little bit for those that are tuning into our show
right now.
Speaker 6: Yeah, man, Well, you know we talk about a BYU.
To be honest, the Big twelve stuff doesn't do great
in the algorithm compared to the SEC in the Big ten.
And I want to help change that. Want to help
change that. That's why we taught Big twelve stuff. But look,
if you the best way to support if you can
make a checkout to Now I'm kidding, just go to
YouTube it's Crane and Cones, cr ai N and Cone.
Just go there, subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify. That's the
best way.
Speaker 3: Love it well, you do, great word Jake and your crew,
And congratulations on the move to ON three. Was that
a long time coming? How did this all come about? Man,
let's highlight that as well.
Speaker 6: Man, you know, we were happy at the Daily Wire.
It's just, you know, it's kind of a natural evolution
for a sports show to be at a sports media company.
We were kind of on an island a little bit
over there, but we had watched ON three. We knew
some people over there and they had shown a lot
of interest in us, and it kind of blossom from
there and it's it's been great so far. We're just
ready to get in that new studio.
Speaker 3: Hey Man, excited for your congratulations. Love talking ball with you. Well,
who's your way too early team or top maybe top
four teams to win the national championship next year?
Speaker 6: Jake, Well, I tell you it's hard not to put
LSU in there after what they got and you can look.
I don't like the way Lane does a lot of stuff,
But when I like my offense being a run by
a guy like Lane Kiffin, like I like the chef
at my restaurant to be overweight, I need him to
really love what he's doing. So yeah, yeah, so I
would put LSU in there. You're gonna have some of
the same teams. I'm interesting to see with Indiana if
the culture can continue with bringing in higher profile guys.
I want to see that. It's hard for me not
to believe in Signetti though. You know, I Ohio State's
gonna be tough, dude. I mean, they're gonna be really,
really good. They just reload, and I would say, looking
at the sec outside of LSU, I'm really George is
gonna come back with a vengeance now, and they're I
think they're gonna be even better upfront defensively than they were.
So those are the four I put in there.
Speaker 3: Love that breakdown, Jake, We salute you, We appreciate you man.
Thanks for joining us once again.
Speaker 6: Hey, thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 2: Always a pleasure talking ball with Jay Crane.
Speaker 3: That segment was brought to you by Dental PROSI Utah
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take a brief time out. Don't go anywhere though, we're
gonna get into a Cougar beat. Matt Bayamonte, BYU Cougar
Sports insider will join us next. He's the studio host
and play by playboys for By Athletics. We'll get his
thoughts on this Cougar basketball team and more. This is
Cougar Sports on one, O three nine, not eight point three.
Speaker 1: I Gugar Sports with Ben Kretel, and it's time for
the Cougar Beat, getting the dish from the local reporters
that cover Cougar athletics.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Cougar Sports one of three nine ninety eight
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Tuning in, chiming in on this beautiful UH Tuesday edition
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to one six O four two nine one nine. Let's
get out to the hotline. Welcome in Cougar Sports insider
representing BYU Athletics. We got Matt ya Monte on the line. Matt,
how you living, brother?
Speaker 7: I'm living, good Man. How are you doing, Ben?
Speaker 2: I'm doing good Man, just living the dream.
Speaker 3: Look, there was some weeping, wailing and national teeth obviously
live last night. I thought that BYU could possibly get
blown out, but the Cardiac Koogs made it a close one.
Speaker 2: There are silver linings.
Speaker 3: What were your silver linings from the matchup last night
at the Mary Center.
Speaker 7: Well, the most obvious silver lining is MoU Canard Davis
finally breaking out of one of the chilliest slumps I've
ever seen through the first half in conference play.
Speaker 8: This is before in the.
Speaker 7: Second half where he went five or five, hit seventeen points,
and he was red hot. But at the end of
the first half his streak had ballooned. The four of
thirty from three, which if you're doing your math at home,
that's below fourteen percent.
Speaker 8: And we all know how critical it is for.
Speaker 7: Mood Davis and others, not just MOO but others to
compliment the Big three. So I think it is a
huge silver lining to have him go five to five
from three in the second half, and then you get
a couple of triples from postitch off the bench. Maybe
that's someone you can sprinkle in from here to there,
and then I think AJ alluded to this post game,
but I do think another silver lining is in those
final six minutes, in particular to Final four. It's felt
like you saw the style of play that we all
want to see, which is sharing the ball, getting up
and down, being a little more deliberate, and running plays
rather than your.
Speaker 6: Turn, my turn.
Speaker 7: And there's a place for that. I'm not saying there's not.
Speaker 8: When someone's cooking, whether it's.
Speaker 7: The AJ or Rob or Ritchie, see the hot player
of the ball. There's always going to be a place
for isolation, but your identity needs to be based on
moving without the basketball. Sharing the ball might just be
a personal preference fan, but I don't love possessions where
someone dribbles it down, backs into a corner, or gets
a pick and roll, and the ball never moves, it's
never passed to anyone. And I felt like there was
too many of those possessions when Arizona was getting that
lead of nineteen where the ball wasn't moving, And then
to me, it's no surprise that the lead is trended.
You're seeing the ball move around. Rob's distributing, Richie's hitting
Three's moves hitting three. So there were a lot of
silver linings and I think there's a lot to build
from that second half.
Speaker 3: Is you know, you bring up a really good point here, Okay,
you wonder if the first half is almost like a
an NBA style schematic, you know, Foray, you know where
there's a lot of ISoP and BYU you know has struggled.
I mean, look from an efficiency standpoint, there's seventieth in
the in the nation in the first half. They're number
one in the nation in the second half. So my
biggest scripe is first half inefficiency. And I wonder if
it's the schematics and the approach offensively that is determining
that in the first half.
Speaker 2: Give me your thoughts on this on this theory that
I have going.
Speaker 7: It's not a bad theory. I think if I wanted
the poke holes in the theory, I would say, if AJ,
you know, shot the ball better, then maybe we wouldn't
even be having this discussion. Because AJ was inefficient and
Rob was inefficient. Those are two performances from two of
your three best players that you don't normally get. They're
normally a lot better than that. Rob, in particular, he
had been unbelievable in conference play. His scoring was up
in conference play, and from a three point percentage perspective,
he's the best three point percentage shooter on the team.
So what happened to Rob against Arizona is not indicative
of the way that he's played in league play at all.
So that's where I would maybe poke holes in that
is just, hey, you know, to quote AJ, we just
missed shots. But at the same time, I think.
Speaker 2: That we're getting though, right, Matt, right.
Speaker 7: Well, And that's what I was gonna say then, which was, Okay,
isolation ball can work, and you have great players, but
I think isolation ball hurts the role players the most
because they go multiple possessions without touching the basketball, not
being involved There's a play in the first half where
Aj had it in the right corner down by the
rock and he was waiting for movement and there was
no movement. And you know, was that a byproduct of
ISO ball or was that the play? I'm who knows
for sure, but I do think it is very clear
from that second half and that this team has got
to find ways to spread the ball around more. We
saw it in the Utah game two to one assists,
turnover ratio seventeen assists. There just wasn't quite that flow
for the majority of the Arizona game, and I think
it hurt him.
Speaker 3: Matt, you mentioned some of the silver linings. What is
the identity of this BAU men's basketball team. I mean, look,
they have three losses.
Speaker 2: This is a.
Speaker 3: Fantastic team, right This is an awesome team, maybe an
elite A team, maybe better than that.
Speaker 2: But what's the identity of this team? Would you say?
Speaker 7: To be honest, Ben, I don't know that there is
an identity right now, and I think that's to come
back to the silver lining.
Speaker 8: I think that's what is.
Speaker 7: So encouraging about that second half surge is maybe you
ratchet up the pressure defensively maybe you get up tempo
a little bit more and you spread the ball around
and maybe shoot a few more threes. You know, you
don't need to become reliant on the threes, and that's not.
Speaker 8: To say you don't get Aj the ball in.
Speaker 7: The mid range, where he's been deadly all season. But
from game to game, I'm not sure that this team
has the style or an identity. And in a lot
of ways, Ben, I think that's to be expected. When
you bring in three new starters, you bring in new
role players, there's a lot of change. And I think
that's something to remember with this group is Rob is
a new point guard, and he's a vastly different point
guard than Jegor was last year. And then you throw
in AJ. You know you did not have an AJ
in talent or style last year. And then on top
of that, you bring in Canard mood Davis to play
a specific role that he's.
Speaker 8: Never played before.
Speaker 7: I know that Kay why and the staff wasn't to
be more free in d but at Southern Illinois he
was more of a well balanced scorer. So I still
think that this team needs to find that identity if
they're going to round into a Final four. Team. The
good news is we were having the same conversation last
year in January. We'll see identity, what's going to happen
Ky and the team that figured it out. But as
of right now, I still think they are trying to
lock in on what that identity is and hopefully yesterday
revealed exactly what the identity can be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, It's something that I brought up early in the show.
It's like, look, we were saying the same things about
free throw shooting and identity in late januaryly February, and
then somehow, some way they got back on the right track.
They started hitting free throws down the stretch and started
playing their best basketball in late February. So I feel
like that trend, that trajectory is going to be that's
going to occur once again this season.
Speaker 2: You got to trust in this coaching staff.
Speaker 7: Right Oh No, I mean this coaching staff is an
elite coaching staff.
Speaker 8: I thought there were several.
Speaker 7: Moments at the end of that game that highlighted just
how special this group is, whether it be Kevin Young
calling timeouts at the right time to dial up plays.
Speaker 8: To even get them in the position they were in.
Speaker 7: And I thought too in the second half, but he decided,
you know what, we're throwing out Boskovic, We're throwing out Postitch.
I mean, there was a lineup at one point where
it looked like AG was the five.
Speaker 8: I know it's positionless.
Speaker 7: Basketball, but it was Aj, Rob Voskovic, Coastitch, and Richie
and you're like, man, this is a start. Contrast to
what we saw in the first half and against Utah,
where you had lineups with Aj Poskovich on med and.
Speaker 8: I'm forgetting another tall dude, but they were all It.
Speaker 7: Felt like there was four guys that were six nine
or above and then they go small.
Speaker 8: I thought that was a beautiful wrinkle.
Speaker 7: In that second half. Comeback to say, you know what,
we haven't run this group very much, but we need
to spread the floor, we need to get up and down,
and we need to shoot the ball. And then they
go fifty percent from three and they have the most
success they had in that game. So this coaching staff
is elite. They're going to figure it out. And now
it's it's really up to some of the role players
to show that they can be consistent, that being can
move build on this. Can he stay out of the
slump and become a thirty five to forty three point shooter.
Does coast Itch become a that you fill in may
to maybe take some of those shots that you wanted
Dawson Baker to.
Speaker 8: Have earlier in the year.
Speaker 7: If he's taking three or fourth three the game and
hitting at a thirty five percent clup, that's a big addition.
So I have full support and belief that this staff
will figure it out. You've got the penal it, you've
got the staff, and now the players just need to
make it happen.
Speaker 3: Matt bayam on to hear on your Utah ESPN Radio
network one of the play by play voices for BYU
Athletics Stockings and BYU Basketball, you mentioned coach Stick. I
called him Alexi Coastick curry Man.
Speaker 2: He was in fuego. Were you hoping for a heat check?
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 3: I was hoping for a heat check and he never
touched the ball again.
Speaker 2: Why use that?
Speaker 3: Is that more of a player isher or a coaching
issue in Coastick, who has the hot end, never gets
another look within the offense.
Speaker 7: I mean, I guess you'd have to maybe put on
the players because because I feel like in that second
half you know there was not enough ball to go around.
Richie was playing his best basketball of the night. Cannard
Davis went five to five. You can make the case
he didn't get the ball enough. Maybe he should have
been the recipient of the final shot on a kickout
for a three point. Of the way he had played
in the second even he had the whole team in
scoring in the second half and seventeen Coastitch deserves some
more looks. So I think it's I think it's difficult
in some of those stases when as a team you're
really hot, what do you do if you were Rob Wright?
Because he still has that elite skill set to get
to the rim. Wasn't his night, as we discussed, But yeah,
I think there's a case where I would have liked
to see him get a few more shots. But also
what was Arizona doing potentially on the defensive end to
take that away? And there was a careless turnover in
the second half involving Coastch that lost to a possession.
Who knows if that played into it as well. But
regardless of how many attempts he had, the fact that
he came in and made shots and was a positive
contri read against the number one team in the nation.
That's something you can build on as you go to
Kansas on Saturday. Sprinkle in a little more coastitch. Can
he ride that? Continue to get Moo Davis some looks
because you need those threes. That's why I think as
painful as it was to not get a quality look
at the rim, and I don't want to just that
is painful. There's no if fans or butts about it.
Ben to not get a better look in the final shot,
that hurts, But that doesn't disparage all the good and
some of the answers you found in the test in
the second.
Speaker 3: Half, Matt, I do want to transition here a little segue.
Are you most optimistic about basketball? The trajectory of basketball
or football? Which one are you more optimistic about? The
you know, and I'm talking like five years down the road,
like you know, you're looking at like the trajectory of
both these brands, Both of these programs they look maybe
on equivalent pass But which one are you more more
optimistic about in a future?
Speaker 7: Well, I am optimistic about both. I do want to
put that out there, but if I had to pick one,
I am more optimistic about basketball for a couple of reasons.
Number one, this is completely out of control of anyone
at BYU, but basketball, the sport of basketball, the organization
of NCAA basketball. It is more conducive to winning because
other teams in a BYU position have been able to
make that. I don't want to call it a turnaround,
because bo has been good for a long time, but
you can kind of spring up out of nowhere and
become a power. We saw it with Gonzaga. We've seen
it with Butler. I know they've kind of fallen backed off,
but there was a period of time where Butler was
going to the Final Four. The way that college basketball
has been put into a framework makes it easier to
compete because there is a net rating system that is
equal to all. It can benefit the top conference and
it can benefit a mid major conference. The net ranking
system Quad one, Quad two, Quad three, Quad four, it
helps us contextualize a lot of these games. College football
doesn't have that. And then on top of that, you
have a fair tournament where there is equal opportunity for
everyone to qualify. And I love in college basketball how
you're not penalized for a close loss, like what's happened
last night. In a lot of ways, that might be
a positive that you went toe to toe and had
a comeback against an Arizona team. So the framework of
college basketball allows for a BYU to bring in a
Kevin Young and just vault to the top, whereas college
football you can put all the money in the world
in there, the rosters are so much bigger that doesn't
guarantee chemistry. And then on top of that, you've got
a system with the committee that is very clearly biased
and unfair in the way that they evaluate teams, even
amongst the power conferences. The fact that BYU was never
even considered this past season is a travesty and a crime,
because they deserve to be in the conversation. Ben. You
can make the case that they didn't have the resume
to be in front of Miami or Notre Dame, which
I believe is ridiculous, But they weren't even in the conversation.
Their practic was taken off the show on ESPN's show.
For Evin's sakes, what else can you do. There's already prognostications,
to use one of your favorite words, Ben, for next
season that if BOU doesn't go undefeated and win the
Big Twelve, they won't be considered Are you kidding me?
That is to me, that's ridiculous. So that just makes
it incredibly hard. Look a lot of the football program,
they're doing all the right things. The player attention is great,
their recruiting is great, but the system itself doesn't allow
for a BYU to get in a in a fair
way that makes sense. And so for that reason alone,
I have to give the nod to the basketball program.
Speaker 3: What's your theory on why the Big twelve isn't getting
the respect that it could deserve?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: You know, some people feel, you know, both the ACC
and the Big Twelve are kind of on equal footing.
Look at what Miami did though this year, and maybe
that's swaying in their direction. But what's your theory on
on why maybe the Big twelve is on the outside
looking in a little bit as far as respect preseason
rankings is concerned, et cetera.
Speaker 8: It's very simple. Then they are missing.
Speaker 7: Texas and Oklahoma. And even though Texas and Oklahoma they've
had some highs of late, but they have not been
perennial powers in terms of postseason success for quite some time.
Doesn't matter because that's this sport, college football. I love it,
but it's so frustrating. They value the name, the logo,
and the brand cachet, which ironically, Boy has all those
things and you have. They're left out way more than quality.
The ACC, in my opinion, was far superior than the
Big Twelve this past season, even though Miami made a
nice run and went to the National Championship Game. From
top to bottom, there was teams in that league that
were way down.
Speaker 8: I mean there's teams that have been good in.
Speaker 7: That league that are really bad. Virginia Tech historically has
been a good football program. They stink. I don't know
if they could beat, you know, some of the lower
teams in the Big Twelve. They stink. Florida State, they
had that little glow up for a minute. They're back
down and trying to figure it out. But the difference
is the ACC does have those names. You know, Miami,
the U.
Speaker 8: Florida State a huge name in college football.
Speaker 7: Clemson of recent years has turned into a really nice program.
It doesn't matter if they are bad. Those are still
names that you know and love and that you want
to be. At the top of college football. The Big
twelve unfortunately does not have any names like that, and
I think they're being penalized for that. Even though you
look at let's say, teams ten to one in the
Big twelve, I think that they could go toe to toe,
if not beat their counterparts in the ACC. But you
don't look at a BIU or a Texas Tech and
consider them on the same historical plane as the Florida
State in Miami. I think it's unfair. To my previous point,
I hate it about college football, even though I love
the sports so much and every Saturday is incredible. In
college football, it's not judged fairly and it's not judge
off merit, and to me, it is simply because you
do not have a historical quote unquote blue blood at
the top to promote.
Speaker 3: If you could have one or two things, expansion of
the playoff right with the subjective human commies still making
the decision. Let's say it's sixteen teams that they expand
to or having a you know, you can still have
the committee, but it's weighted equally with an algorithm, so
you get a metric. Maybe it's sp plus combined with
AP combined with Sagarin combined with you know whatever metric
right that you're going to utilize to give the objective
data point, but you also have the human elements still
in place with the committee. They weighted equally, but you
only get twelve team, Which one would you rather happen?
Speaker 7: Why it's a no brainer, Ben, And then it's an
expanded playoff because these corrupt is not the right word,
that's probably too harsh of a word. But these committee members,
these high ranking officials that determine college football, they'll just
move the goalpost.
Speaker 6: Ben.
Speaker 7: We've already seen it, like the fact that there are
recruiting rankings that factor into this, and you just say, oh,
Michigan signs this kid from Utah, let's elevate into five star.
Oh buyu, you bring in Walker Lyons and four star.
They'll just move the goalpost. We've seen it in the
recruiting rankings for years with BYU and they'll just do
that with algorithms. So to me, the only thing that's
fair is to expand this playoffs as far out as
you can to include as many teams. And that's why
this doesn't happen in college basketball, because when you have
sixty plus team, sixty eight teams, in the field. You
can't really have a gripe if you're team sixty nine,
because there's everyone that is truly deserving is getting into
the NCAA tournament. If you want to do twelve and
have all these metrics, well, they'll just find ways to
have the metrics benefit the schools.
Speaker 8: That they want to be in.
Speaker 7: So, to me, the only way to solve some of
that is to actually take significantly less power away from
the committee. I hate them even saying this, Ben, but
maybe you give two automatic qualifiers to every conference and
then a few more than the others to guarantee that
the team's playing in the championship. Get in to me
that that's the only way to get some level of
fairness in college football, because whether it be the BCS
rankings or the A voter twos of the National Championship,
there's been a history in this sport of moving the
gold posts to benefit the blue bloods, and that would
just continue if you had a twelve team playoff. But
you found a way to put in these algorithms, and
it wouldn't result in what we want, and what we
want is fairness and an opportunity for teams that deserve
it to compete for a national championship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does.
Speaker 3: It make you optimistic though the trajectory of college football.
Knowing that Indiana won the Natty, that Miami was the
runner up.
Speaker 7: Yes, that does make it optimistic for sure. Because Indiana,
it's well documented how poor they were, and you know,
they built a culture, and they mined the transfer portal,
and they built a team and I had a great
chemistry and they.
Speaker 8: Did everything the right way.
Speaker 7: So that is an optimistic piece of it. But what's
gonna happen to the Indianas of the world when they've
got Biu's resume and they get blown out in a
conference championship game and they're ten and two. Are they
gonna get the benefit of the doubt? Or is a
blue blood of an equal record gonna get put in
front of them because they're gonna draw maybe a better
TV rating, or they're gonna.
Speaker 8: Have a little sexy year of a matchup.
Speaker 7: And you put the logos on the screen.
Speaker 8: That wasn't something that we can answer this year.
Speaker 7: Because Indiana won every game, so they were never in
that position. But I'd be very curious to see if
they were ten and two and went to the big
ten and got hammered. If they would still get in
when you've got another ten and two Notre Dame behind
them one spot, what do you think would happen?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 7: I think Notre Dame would get in in that scenario, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, Unfortunately the quitting Irish. Uh, they just have
more cachet, They have more they have more power. You know,
people were asking me like, how is it that they
backdoored that deal? How is it that they got that
deal done with the committee? If anyone asked you that question.
We were ideating a little bit on how they got
the exemption, the the the you know, the ticket punched
essentially if they're in the top twelve.
Speaker 2: Do you have a theory on.
Speaker 7: A great question? I mean, I don't think you have
to theorize much. I just think that when you know, look,
at the end of the day, this playoff is a
TV show. There is an entity that owns the college
football Playoffs, and it is a for profit event. And
would you have rather had if you were running that
tournament Notre Dame or James Madison.
Speaker 3: Yeah, James Madison would have been bounced because contractually they
have to. They had to at the time put in
what was it, the top six conference highest rate of
conference champions at that time, so like they were.
Speaker 2: Obligating at the time.
Speaker 7: Yeah, at the time, there was nothing that can be done.
But that's no longer the current circumstance.
Speaker 8: Yeah, if that we're going to play.
Speaker 7: If that were to play out now, Notre Dame's getting in.
And I don't think you have to look any further
than the entity putting on the tournament saying how do
we get the most how do we get the most
ROI and unfortunately James Madison, they competed against Oregon, but
it wasn't that close of a game. I hate to
admit this, but Notre Dame would have put up a
better fight against Oregon then James Madison. And so I
think the thinking is, how do we make the best
product possible for a tournament? And I'd be shocked if
Notre Dame even had to fight that hard to get
that exemption. You want them in if they're in the
top twelve because they're a huge draw.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say this.
Speaker 3: You know, let's turn it back to attitude here BYU
football is in the Glory era, right, this is.
Speaker 2: In you know what I mean? It's crazy to me.
Speaker 3: I was looking at the winnings eras in BYU football history,
and you look at seventy nine to eighty five glory days, Right.
Speaker 2: That's the true glory.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But the second winning era up until you know, the
current one was essentially six to twenty eleven. You had
double digit wins every season minus one. Kind of interesting, like,
you know, kind of in the middle of it all
in from six to twenty eleven. And now you have
from twenty twenty to two thousand and twenty five, you
got eleven wins, you have ten wins, you have eight,
you got five, you got eleven, you got twelve.
Speaker 2: These are the glory days once again.
Speaker 3: Like it's pretty crazy to see, you know, and it
kind of realized that you're a part of the glory
days once again.
Speaker 7: Right, you're absolutely right, Like this is a this is
an amazing era of THEU football To to retain Kilane,
to retain these players, to retain a lot of the staff,
there is so much to be excited about. And they
could very well win the Big twelve next year. And
if they go to the playoffs, and we'll celebrate and
we'll root on the team, and it will be phenomenal.
It's just I think it's just unfortunate that it feels
like that's what it has to be for Rea football
and for a lot of other schools. But to bring
it back to gratitude to your point, then the fact
that they're in this position so quickly in the Big
Twelve is a testament to Kilane, It's a testament to
President Reese. It's a testament to what Tom Holmo did
and now Brian Santiago that they have been able to
galvanize this alumni base to support this program led by
Klani and that.
Speaker 8: You're in a place, you're in position to be in position,
and there's a lot.
Speaker 7: Of schools that you're not in position to compete to
even have an opportunity, and that is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
So I love Boa football and I think I think
the sky's the limit for Bou football. But it is
gonna require a Big Twelve championship to break into the
playoff ultimately.
Speaker 3: Matt Baya, Monte Ladies and gentlemen, Matt, best way to
support you, what you do, how you do it.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us today for a Cougar beat.
Speaker 7: Yeah, listen in to football season's over, but now basketball
pre game listen to Greg marked around.
Speaker 8: La Cole and then pretty soon I'll.
Speaker 7: Be heading out with with men's baseball and doing play
by play for BOU Radio. So that's coming up in
mid February. So if you like baseball, tune on in
and I'll take you along in non conference play.
Speaker 2: Were you I imagine you were at the first Pitch dinner?
What would happened there? Give us a little synopsis.
Speaker 7: Yeah, there was just great recognition of former Cougars that
have made it to the big leagues. Schneam in with
the with the Guardians. His story is incredible and it's
truly actually remarkable that Coach Pratt and this baseball staff
had so many players during his time as an assistant
coach and a head coach getting them in a position
to play professional baseball. So I think just a celebration
of what the program has done to put guys into
the league.
Speaker 8: And look, it's.
Speaker 7: Gonna be a really exciting team. They returned so much
offensive production.
Speaker 8: They made a late push.
Speaker 7: Last year to get into the Big twelve Championship down
in Arlington, Texas. I know they didn't make it the
championship game data. They had a nice little run there
as the last team in to the tournament, and you
bring back so much production. They have a new pitching coach,
probably need to see some improvement there on the mound,
but there's a lot of excitement for this baseball season
that they can build upon what they did to finish
off last year.
Speaker 3: Love to break down, Matt Baia, Monte, Ladies and Gentlem.
Make sure you're following him on X and listening to
him on BYU Radio. Thanks so much, Matt. We'll catch
up with again.
Speaker 7: Soon, brother, Take care, guys. Thank you there go.
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Central Garage Utah dot com. Uh, Central garage Door. They
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