Speaker 1: With Ben kretel At. It's time for the Cougar Beat.
Getting the dish from the local reporters that cover Cougar athletics.
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Let's get out to the hotline and welcome in Cougar
Sports in Saturn representing BYU Radio. We got Matt by
a Monte on the line. Matt, how the heck are you?
Speaker 1: I've never been better? This is I mean, what transpired
this week and where we're at today. I think I'm
I'm the best I've ever been. Guys, We're heading to
a Big twelve title game. We've blocked the Salani Sataki
Eyo hooks they rolled last night, Like this is you
just can't be any better right now if you're a
b A you fan.
Speaker 2: Shoot, man, it's really there's not a lot to complain
about now where we have a persecution and complex like
let's be real, like we're I was gonna poke at
like the void right Hey, well, but but Kalate's not
up for the head coach of the Year nationally or
Beart Bachmeyer's not up for the the freshmen of the
the Shawnigs Alexander or hey, why is b Yu outside
the college football playoff at number eleven? There's much to
complain about, but I'm with you, man, lots to be
grateful for as well, all as well to a certain
degree in h Cougar country right now.
Speaker 1: Well, of those things that you said, we can complain about,
by far and away, the biggest complaint is the complete
mockery of the college football playoff integrity with be or
you being an eleven. It's just the more you read
into all the different angles that could possibly be at
play here, there is not a single logical reason that boy,
you should not be safely in the field and I
think that is the true, the true gripe that BYU
have right now. I don't want to cloi one out,
but I heard someone on social media making the case,
the tired case that is completely unfair, that if BOU
just wins, then it's all fine. Well, Yues, that's true.
If few of you wins, they get in. Yes, we
get that. But what we're talking about here is having
a set criteria that we apply fairly across college football,
and in particular the power for right. And when you
look at some of the things that BOU has done
so well this year, six wins against teams with FBS
teams with winning records, for road wins against bull eligible teams,
do you have a great strength of record? Do you
have a good strength to schedule? That is the one
thing that I think, to your point, been fans and
greipe about because of it's truly preposterous how BOU is
positioned right now in the rankings.
Speaker 2: It does hurt the college football caball the oligopoly, the monopoly,
the good Old Boys Club, their stiff arm and Brigham.
But why are they stiff arming Brigham? Why if you
had a Pike chart of accountability how would the fractionalize
the pieces of the pie look From your vantage.
Speaker 1: Point, I would say it is ninety percent due to
them not being in the SEC of the Big Ten.
Even though we hear the term power four use the lots.
It's very clear that the powers that be love the
power too, the Big ten in the SEC, and there's
a little to no love given to the ACC and
the Big twelve in particular the Big Twelve, which I
think is what is so maddening, is that even though
the ACC is having a horrific year in which you
have a Virginia team that is ranked in the title
game and a seven and five team in the title game,
the ACC does not hold a candle to the Big twelve.
But in years past you had Clemson, which is one
of the best programs in college football. For whatever reason,
whatever Clemson did in the past, there's still a little
cachet with that that's not big granted to the Big twelve.
And I think I think ten percent of it too.
And maybe it's along the same lines, is that BYU
for whatever reason, amongst the national media and the elites
of college football, they are not viewed as being a
member of a power conference. To me, the national media
in particular still looks at BYU as an independent or
a Group of five caliber team, and that is just
clearly not true. Any metric you want to look at
would tell you that this team is not only a
Power Conference team, They're one of the better Power conference teams.
I'm not saying they belong with an Alabama or a Georgia.
Those teams have been elite for a long time. But
you can't tell me that BYU, especially in the last
five years, have not been better than the upper half
of the Power four. They have a top ten winning
percentage since since twenty twenty two. They have some some
great players that want to play in the league. And
it's like, anyway you want to slice the dice, it
players in the league winning percentage, players that make all
conference teams like they have everything, and that they're just
not being respected. And I think it is simply due
to the fact that people don't want to acknowledge the
Big Twelve as being a good power conference league and
that BYU is one of the best teams in that
power conference league.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh, it's sad, but true. There's uh, there's
there's there's some issues we gotta that we gotta address,
and you know, it's hard to diagnose exactly why it
is the way that it is. You know, some people
are calling for religious bigotry. You know, they're trying to say, hey,
there's there's the upper the institutions of higher learning. They
don't like Brigham anyway, They stiff on him for a
long time. Didn't want them in the good old boys club.
I get it. I hope that there's enough advocacy out
there that will hopefully rally in ba's favorite. We're seeing
some of it obviously, Stool presidente Dave Portnoy, I think
we saw earlier today. I just put this out. There's
others kind of coming to the table and advocating for BYU.
Will Compton breaking down BoA's unfair college football playoff scenario.
Will we get enough advocacy to sway the college football
playoff that if we lose in a close one that
we could inch in that we could get in as
an at large bin.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that will happened, because this has been
the most contradictory committee and quite frankly, the most mind
boggling committee in terms of their rationale. Week over week.
For them to say that they are not comparing Miami
and Notre Dame because they are not ranked next to
each other, that makes no sense. That makes absolutely no sense,
because we've been told for years and this is specifically
written out in the in the committee's criteria is that
you group teams, you submit a ballot for the first four,
and then the next four, and so on and so
forth until you fill the full twenty five. So if
you're grouping teams, and we've heard this with BYU been,
we've heard them say we aren't grouping BYU with with
a Notre Dame in an Alabama right now, they're being
grouped with Miami and these other teams. So if they
are truly grouping teams, why does it matter that there's
one team in between Miami and Notre Dame when applying
the head to head metric. We could spend the next
thirty minutes talking about all the things that this committee
has contradicted. But the one thing that is certain about
this committee is that they are not going to suddenly
use rhyme and reason to determine this this seating of teams,
because there is no rhyme or reason, and so I
think the only way deal he gets in is to win.
I do think that is unfair. I don't think it's right.
I think the Big twelve having two teams at eleven
and one, they should be safely in. But that's not
where we're at. And it doesn't matter if it's still
president or heck, even President Trump. I don't think any
president Ben could convince this committee to make sense and
have rationale when seating, and I don't expect that to change.
Speaker 2: Is asking for an executive order to expand the playoff.
Speaker 1: To sixteen too? Please get that execution of ordered, baby.
Speaker 2: Man crazy time. It doesn't a.
Speaker 1: Perfect year for sixteen, though, Ben, don't you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean, look, we're always gonna want to expand,
but yeah, sixteen would be helpful this year. I think
I think sixteen would be perfect. I mean, what's the
perfect number? Right? Is sixteen the perfect number? The sweet
sixteen of college football? Is that what we're going with.
Speaker 1: I've kind of like hear me out on this. I'm
kind of like twenty. And the reason I say twenty
is I like that the top four seeds are rewarded
with a buy. I think there is some mari to that,
it is. I don't want to say it's unfair because
they would get a lower seed, but that's a that's
a tall ask. It's it's very hard to go on
a run like Ohio State went on last year, where
you're playing in the opening round and so on and
so forth. So I like twenty to where you get
the top four, that bye, and then you've got the
round of sixteen first, and then and then off you go.
And then it kind of feels good too, because you're
saying top twenty, this is the top twenty playoffs, So
I would say twenty. But you have to find a
way to cut some games too, because I just I
just have a hard time seeing them getting all those
games in in the right amount of time. It's it's
it's hard to it is hard to figure out what
is best. But man, it doesn't feel like what we're
doing right now is best because there's there's teams that
are not being judged fairly and accordingly, and and I
think that does use a buzzword of the week, and
I think it does do a disservice to college football
that we're not judging these teams fairly and equally.
Speaker 2: No doubt about it. Everyone's beginning to think that there's
corruption in college football still. The cabal, the oligopoly of
college athletics is uh, is just corrupt. It's been uh,
it's been bought, it's been paid for. It's money. It's
not true merit as it should be. That's what sports
all about, right, That's what sports all about. Sort of
merited and won on the football field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm well said. And it feels like in this
year in particular, more so than any other college football
playoff year. And there's been some there's been some years
where there's been some gripes, like what happened in Florida
State was tough. You go undefeated and you don't get in.
But this year in particular, it feels really tough because
there's a team like BYU that has uh, you know,
based on merit, I feel like deserves a chance to
be in this playoff regardless of the outcome this week,
and then you have other teams that compare against similar
teams in terms of record. And yet the logic seems
the shift based on from you know, from my vantage point,
we want to have the blue bloods in the in
the tournament. We got to have that gold Dome. Baby,
we gotta have touchdown Jesus and this thing, we got
to have the elephant, we got to have role tied
in there. And those teams are not clearly better in
terms the merit from from a b YU. And and
look even Miami, Miami's got a fair case against Notre
Dame and that doesn't seem to be happening. So this year,
this year is the one that I think is the
most frustrating, and unless it's the most strong opinions, because
there's just no set criteria, there's no rhyme or reason.
And that's that's that's very frustrating that.
Speaker 2: By a monte Ladies and gentlemen, Matt, what else has
been maybe keeping you up at night, anything else that
you've been kind of pondering on that you you can
pontificate on our airways with us.
Speaker 1: This hasn't been keeping me up at night lately since
Kilanie extended. But I was, I was very worried about
the future of b U football when it felt like
there was a moment that Kilanie was going to leave
the program, and then BYU the Board of Trustees President
Reece ad Ryan Santiago for them to be able to
retain him and in the terms of Brian Santiago, significantly
invest in the program. This is something that I think
BYU fans. I know I felt this way, but I
think most BOU fans would say, this is a day
in a week that we have dreamed of our entire lives.
I was thinking about this earlier today. Ben. I remember
vividly and I'll never forget this being in Rice Cycle
Stadium as a fan in twenty twelve. That was the
infamous game where mo Lee scooped and scored and BYU
had multiple cracks at field goals late fans running onto
the field and they don't and they can't get it done.
And that was that was very That was very early
into independence and early into Utah's timing in the PAC twelve,
and you just felt like, can we compete with the resources,
specifically in terms of poaching, salaries and investment into the program.
And I just remember driving home with friends and family,
the long drive back from Rice Cycle Stadium down to
Utah County. Is there ever going to be a day
where the church invests into BYU athletics at the rate
that they need to to compete at the highest level,
and it felt like at the time it felt like no,
but you could help yourself with dream about what it
would be like in terms because we know the daughter
base is there, we know the alumni bases there, everything
is there. It just felt like for so long we
were doing it at a disadvantage because the resources were
not matching those playing at the highest level. This week,
I think we can now say BYU is invested at
the highest level. They want to win. These are all
things we've heard at the press conference. Significant investments. We
want to win at the highest level. We want to
do it the BYUA that is happening. We're in a
Big twelve championship, we got two top twenty five ranked teams.
And in major sports basketball and football. There's other sports
that are are doing very very well, crossing country, all
the track and field under coach dil G Taylor, women's soccer,
the women in nice little Ryn Like there's there's so
much success and there's so much investment, and now we're
finally getting to live out that dream then of what
BYU could do if the investment in the resource backing
was there to match the passion. It's all aligned and
for a moment there this week it felt like that
might be something away a little bit, but no credit
to all those individuals who helped retain Kalani and invest
into football. This thing is can continue to rise and
it's it's a beautiful thing. Man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're a Utah fen you're kind of you're
kind of ticked off and you lost three in a row.
Now they had they had what a thirteen fourteen year
head start on their rival, and they hey, they want
they got nine in a row. Credit to them with
that PAC twelve logo that no longer exists. It got
destroyed with their their their their Conference of champions Right,
But it's gott to really tick off the seeing BYU
catch up so quickly and surpass them so quickly. And
by the way, it's flip season. We may have a
few flip recruits soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, that would be fantastic. This is already a great
signing class. I know there was a little stress there
with the Ryder Lions, but he signed on the dotted line.
This is one of the great recruiting classes at Build
You Football history. This is why I feel like with
the investment in Kilani in the program, you're going to
continue to see an upward trend. You're you're getting good
talent out of the transfer portal. You are building great
high school recruiting classes, which I think is key been
to maintaining success, which is what Brian Sanciago told us
he wants to do this week. It's not just about
having a one year or a two year, it's about
sustained success. You got to do it the high school ranks,
and then you got to have that resources or retained
coaches and players which they're pumping in there. So hey,
if a few people flip and you continue to keep
this train on the tracks, we could be seeing a
lot more of BYU in meaningful games like the one
coming up to Saturday.
Speaker 2: Score prediction, What do you Got for Me? BYU Texas
Tech bou is a twelve and a half point dog
and ESPN Analytics when he gives him like what a
thirty four to thirty five percent chance of victory?
Speaker 1: I think that if you has any chance to win
this game, there's going to be They needs to be
some ball control, it needs to be a slower paced game,
which I think would favor BYU. Their top of the
conference and time of possession. I think getting Kialani back,
extending him that was a jolt of energy into the program.
I think that there is tremendous motivation, not only from
the loss, but also knowing, well, if these players and
coaches aren't they're not naive to what's happening in college football.
They know how how they're probably going to get left
out if they don't win. That is a huge motivating factor.
I have come all the way around from BYU having
a hard time winning this one too. I have the
Tubes winning and I think the score will be one
d four to twenty, twenty four to twenty. There you go,
twenty four twenty Coups winning their first ever Big twelve championship.
Speaker 2: It's been it's been almost twenty years since we won
a conference championship. Man twenty years. Nice time was seven.
Speaker 1: Nineteen, eighteen, nineteen years. Yeah. Crazy, And this is the
most important one of them all. Of all the twenty
twenty three previous conference championships, there was nothing on the
line like this, So this is this is a big deal.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, Matt, best way to support you, what you do,
how you do it for all the listeners.
Speaker 1: Yes, this season I joined bou Radio. I'm with Greg Rebel, Hans,
Mitch Jurgen's Jason Sheppard. I do. I'll be doing pregame
this week live from AT and T Stadium on all
the places you hear, BOIU Radio, on the app, on
Cancelings Radio, on BOIU Radio, all those things. So follow
me on Twitter. But hey, listen to the Game Day
and that's where you'll find me.
Speaker 2: My god Matt by Monte. Ladies and gentlemen, make sure
you're follow him on X and listening to him on
BYU Radio. Thanks so much, Matt, great content as always.
Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, thanks again, Ben, appreciate all you guys. Have
a good one.
Speaker 2: Yep, have a great night. That was a great segment
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