Speaker 1: Check it out college football on the West Coast. This
is Get Off My Pylon, a look at the PAC
twelve and more, part of the College Gridiron Coast to
Coast podcast network. Here's your host, Matt Zimon.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the last edition of to Get Off My
Pilon college football podcast. This is your host, Matt Zemmick
Get Off My Pilon part of the College graderon Coast
to Coast podcast network. Go to Twitter at Gridiron Coast
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to get all your favorite College Grade Aron Coast to
Coast shows, whether it's Pigskin and Burnt Dens or whether
it's Yards and Stripes. On the Service Academies, Jason Powers
and the Florida Football Insiders obviously Florida hiring a new
coach and Miami in the midst of the playoff debate.
Also South Florida's Alex Goulish leaving to become coach at Auburn,
so plenty on Jason's plate. As usual with Florida Football Insiders,
you have Noah Drury's Big ten paradigm, so he's going
to be previewing Ohio State Indiana. Obviously those are not
West Coast schools, so you know that's under his umbrella,
not mine. I'll throw in a little bit on the
Big Ten, but not about Ohio State Indiana in terms
of the matchup. Have some things about scheduling, but not
that matchup. That's where you want to go to Noah
Drury for the Big Ten Paradigm All Sports Discussion. They're
going to be talking about five lost Duke, the fly
in the ointment, the troublemaker in the ACC, and how
the ACC is praying for Virginia to win that game.
So plenty from the All Sports Discussion ACC podcast as well.
So for these and the other college grid Aaron Coast
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you listen to your podcast. So get off my pylon.
We cover western college football in the United States, and
so we arrive at the end of the regularly scheduled
portion of the season, you know, conference Championship Saturday. Technically
these are thirteenth games. These are games that aren't built
in at the start of the season, meaning that teams
don't know for sure if they're going to play a
thirteenth game. We think that, you know, some teams are
likely to play in these games more than others, and
in some cases the conventional wisdom panned out, but in
other cases not. But anyway, some people will refer to
this as postseason play. To me, it feels more like
the end of the regular season. That's just like it's
you know, it's one week after Week fourteen, it's one
week after game twelve. To me, the regular season is
thirteen games and then the playoff and the balls are
are separate. But if you want to view this as
a postseason game, I'm not going to die on that hill. Like,
I'll let you have that argument. Because it is a
championship game, it is kind of a playoff game. The
stakes are really high for some teams, you know, like
Virginia has to win the ACC to get into the playoff,
James Madison has to win the Sun Belt title game
to have any chance of getting into the playoff. And
North Texas versus Twain, that's a true playoff game. The
winner will be in the playoffs. So lots of stakes there.
So if you want to call it postseason ball. Fine,
you know, not that big a deal to me. It's
just kind of interesting how this this week feels like
an in between week because you have games that are
labeled championships, but just how big are these championships in
actual fact. I'm gonna have a little bit more coming
around on that later, but just wanted to get that
thought out at the beginning. Let's review Week fourteen with
the Western football schools, you know, callen Stanford. Stanford loses
to Notre Dame, a blowout that everyone predicted. Not a
whole lot there. The big story with Stanford Andrew Luck
hiring Tabata Pritchard, former Stamford player, former Stanford coach. He
knows Andrew Luck well, so Andrew Luck keeps it in
the family. One of his friends is promoted to Stanford
head coach. Cal is why Duke is in the ACC
title game. Cal rallies late under interim coach Nick Rolovich.
And if you remember that name, Nick Rolovich. Yes, that's
the guy who used to coach Washington State, but he
had a disagreement with the school about COVID policy, so
he was sent packing. So he was the interim for
Cal and Cal still has a vacancy to fill, and
you know Cal's went over. SMU put Duke in to
the a SEC title game. As CAL looks for its
head coach under Ron Rivera. The industry chatter behind the scenes,
if you're not following the Cal job as part of
the coaching carousel very closely, the intrigue and the whispering
behind the scenes right now is that the target is
Tosh Loupoi. So he's Dan Lanning's defensive coordinator at Oregon,
defensive coordinator for Nick Saban at Alabama, a recruiting heavyweight,
and it would it would seem like a program for Cal,
which has been pretty irrelevant for quite a while Toash Lupoy, like,
I'm not fully sold on him as a coach tactically
as we've seen, you know, him get torn apart when
he was at Alabama, Like Clemson just had its way
with Lupoi and Alabama in that twenty eighteen national title game.
Obviously that was seven seven years ago, though Lupoi might
have learned a few things since then. But still tactically,
I have my reservations. But for a program such as CAL,
like Cal is not USC, Cal is not Oregon. Cal
is not, you know, a big hitter. Tosh Lupoi to
Cal see would seem like a really really good move
and a clear upgrade from the relatively ordinary, not terrible,
but ordinary, you know nothing spectacular tenure of Justin Wilcox,
whom Ron Rivera of course fired. So Tosh Flupoy, if
he goes to Cal, that would be really interesting. And
of course Tash flu boy would want to keep sagapolutele
A as quarterback, and maybe the thought process is that
Toash Lupoy would have the juice to kind of make
that happen, keep Cal's star quarterback and build that roster
out with nil investments, the right allocations of resources for
the retention and development of Cal's twenty twenty six roster.
So that's Stanford and that's Cal. I'm not terrifically impressed
by Tabita Pritchard, but but Stanford does have robust nil coffers.
That was recently a fifty million dollar donation to the
football program. So like Andrew Luck has money to spend,
or Taba to Pritchard, it could be that the infrastructure
at Stanford is so strong and so built up that
having Taba to Pritchard there might not be a negative
drag on the program. It could be that just give
Pritchard the resources and Andrew lux, you know, running the
show anyway. So maybe it's just a matter of Andrew
Luck getting the players in the portal and that could
set Stanford up for success. But I think if it's
Tosh Lupoy at Cal, we don't know as we record
this episode on Carousel Monday. This is this recording is
always the Monday after the past weekend of college football.
If it is Lupoi at Cal, if that turns out
to be the higher I give Cal much higher marks
than Stanford in the Bay Area. All right, So moving along,
Washington State concludes its season. Oregon State have concluded its season.
Oregon State had a vacancy JaMarcus Shepherd assistant at Alabama.
You know, a young go getter. That's the profile for
what Oregon State chose to do. Get a young guy,
give him time, but he's from Alabama from the SEC.
So hiring a young, energetic coach who can really recruit,
who can make a significant, convincing nil sales pitch. So
you know, for if you're Oregon State and you've fallen
on hard times, going with a young coach and giving
him time. I think that's the right move. And you know,
Jonathan Smith got fired by Michigan State. Was Oregon State
interested in a reunion with John and Smith? No, I
mean those bridges got burned, and I understand that, and
I think it makes total sense Oregon State going young
with a head coach. You know, who will be given time,
who will be given a long leash like Oregon State
is not a quick fixed situation, not in the two
pack going into the reworked, reorganized PAC twelve next season.
That that that's a good move Conceptually. You know, Oregon
State was not going to attract an elite candidate, so
you might as well go young, learn on the job,
developmental coach. Why not? Or Oregon State fits that profile
right now. I mean Oregon State didn't want to be here.
Oregon State would have preferred to have, you know, stayed
with an intact PAC twelve with Washington, with Oregon Uh,
you know, with USC everybody. It didn't happen that way.
So Oregon State is making the right adjustment. I think
with the hire of JaMarcus Sheppard as head coach. All right,
moving along, we go to the Mountain West and this
was this was wild. We had a we had a
multi team tie, more more than two teams tied. So
it went to u a formula of some kind. I'm
not going to claim to know all the ins and outs,
but through this formula, it's going to be Boise State
and unlv UH in the title game. And you know,
New Mexico beat San Diego State, and San Diego State
was leading the conference most of the season. And so
not only does New Mexico's defeat knock San Diego State out,
but New Mexico did not get in. And a lot
of people thought, and I'll admit I was one of them.
I was thinking, hm, that that has to me New
Mexico's in. But know the complicated formula used by the
Mountain West to break this several way tie, it fell
in the favor of Boise State and UNLV with San
Diego State and New Mexico the two teams that played
an overtime game on Friday left out. Kind of unformhaw
would have been really great to see New Mexico play
in the Mountain West title game for the first time. Ever, nevertheless,
the Lobos do go nine to three, so that's an
amazing coaching job by Jason Eck. And if you haven't
caught a wind of this yet, Jason X signs a
five year deal, an extension to keep him in Albuquerque.
So that's great news for New Mexico and that reduces
the sting of not getting into the Mountain West title game.
You know, Boise State and UNLV they did not have
especially impressive seasons. They get into the Mountain West title game.
So that's kind of reflective of the year that it
was in the Mountain West with San Diego State not
making the Mountain West title game. You know, so New
Mexico locked up Jason Eck to an extension. Now all
eyes turned to San Diego. Will the Aztecs be able
to retain Sean Lewis their head coach or will he
jump for another job. It's gonna be interesting to see,
but just a forgettable year for the Mountain West. Before
you know, the realignment with the Pac twelve occurs next year.
You know, UNLB, Boise State, it's gonna have zero playoff implications.
It's for a conference championship. But like this, Boise State
was several you could even say dozens of naches worse
than it was last season. At the Broncos are probably
gonna be favored over UNLV. They they they clapbored UNLV
ordered the season. It's going to be a test for
UNLV's defense, which you know got sand blasted to hold
up against Boise State a second time. So Boise State
and UNLV in the Mountain West just a forgettable year
for football in that conference. All right, Now we moved
to the Big Twelve, and so it's Texas Tech against BYU.
So BYU being a Western team that we focus on
here and get off my pilon. Uh. You know, b
YU clinched before it took the field against UCF on
Saturday because Arizona State lost to Arizona and so you
know that that clinched it for BYU. So it was
a sleepy start for the Cougars. But they do beat UCF.
They are eleven and one. And so before we get
into the discussion of BYU Texas Tech in the Big
Twelve title game for a spot in the playoff, right now,
the rumors are flying Kilani Sataki to Penn State. Very
possible that Sataki becomes the Nittee Lions next coach. It's
like it's up to him, Like Penn State seems to
want him, and now it's up to Kialani Sataki to
see if he chooses to go to Happy Valley. So
that becomes a plot point during the week leading up
to the Big twelve championship game. Keep your eyes on that,
all right. Now, let's talk about this BYU Texas Tech game.
You know, the first meeting in Lubbock, it was one
way traffic. Texas Tech's defense absolutely smothered BYU. So the
challenge is obvious. Can BYU generate consistent offense. You know,
I'm not expecting BYU to score a lot, but BYU
is going to have to score at least like twenty points.
You know, BYU is not gonna win this game scoring ten, thirteen, fourteen,
probably even seventeen points. Like BYU is gonna have to
score at least twenty and the defense is going to
have to play a great game. BYU defense is going
to have to take the ball away from Texas Tech.
BYU is going to have to be at least even
on the scoreboard, so that you know, by wh has
been a second half team this year, BYU has to
at least be even or very close to even at
the break. So Texas Tech took control very early in Lubbock,
got up, I believe, thirteen nothing, and just kept adding,
you know, drip, drip, drip to the lead. BYU cannot
fall behind thirteen nothing of this game. It's just it's
just not gonna happen, because then, you know, Jacob Rodriguez,
who I think should be a Heisman finalist, he should
go to New York. He and the rest of that
loaded Texas Tech defense, they're just gonna rush the passer.
They're gonna rush Bear Bachmeier. If Texas Tech gets a
thirteen nothing, fourteen nothing kind of lead. So BYU just
has to manage that game early, make plays early, throw
punches early. If it's if Texas Tech is leading by
at least seven points at halftime, very unlikely BYU comes back.
If Texas Tech is up, you know, thirteen points at
any stage of this game just just really really hard
to see BYU doing much of anything. So Texas Tech
is a double digit favorite, and it should be. You know,
there there was a big gap between those two teams
in Lubbock a few weeks ago, and this game will
be in Arlington, of course, the Jerry World, the Dallas
Cowboys home stadium. It's still going to be a Texas
Tech crowd. Probably, you know, there will be more BYU
fans and attendance, but it's still going to be mostly
a Texas Tech building. So b YU just has to
get off to a good start. Bear Bachwunner has to
make plays down the field in the passing game like byus.
Not likely to march fourteen plays eighty yards in seven minutes.
BYU's gonna need to hit some shots. BOU is gonna
need to get some home runs. Just hit like ten
singles and slowly drive down the field. Now BYU is
gonna need splash plays in this game against Texas Tech.
The Red Raiders are the heavy favorite. They should be
the heavy favorite. I would expect them to win comfortably.
We'll see if BYU can change the conversation relative to
what happened a few weeks ago in Lubbock. All right,
now we go to the Big Ten and the Western
teams in the Big Ten Conference. So Oregon beat Washington,
USC beat Ucla. Let's get the undercard out of the way.
USC did not look good at all against Ucla. Bruins
are just bad. This was a pillow fight. It was
fourteen to ten USC early in the fourth quarter. The
Bruins drop a pass that would have given them a
first down in USC territory. They punt. Then USC appeared
to have thrown an interception. Jade and Mayava seemingly well.
He did throw an interception, but roughing the passer and
pass interference against UCLA. So the Bruins just made it
make a ton of huge mistakes early in the fourth quarter.
USC is able to finally get off the deck cash
in those mistakes win twenty nine ten, But you know,
final margin of nineteen points. It wasn't nearly as impressive
on the scoreboard as you might think. I mean, in
real life. The scoreboard suggests it was a comfortable win.
But if you saw that game, it was not a
comfortable win. It was not a convincing performance at all
for USC. And so for USC, if this team is
struggling with a bad UCLA squad, you know, up only
fourteen to ten in the fourth quarter, trailing ten to
seven late in the third quarter. If this is how
it is against a bad UCLA team, what happens next
year when USC has to play Indiana and Ohio State,
not to mention other Big Ten teams, and we'll see
if that Notre Dame series continues next year. You know,
this was a disappointing finale for USC. It's a win,
but the Trojans did not look good and it just
underscores the inconsistency and the lack of elite play from
Lincoln Riley and his team. USC was nine to three,
but again, no Ohio stayed on this schedule this year,
No Indiana US. He played a soft Big Ten schedule
and still couldn't get to the playoff, still couldn't get
ten and two. It was not as bad a year
as twenty twenty four when the Trojans lost five games,
but it wasn't especially good year and the Big Ten
schedules only going to get tougher next year for USC UCLA.
You know, so Ucla, really, the USC game is a
non story. What matters the Bruins land the plane. They
hire James Madison coach Bob Chesney as their next head coach.
They're going to allow Chesney to coach James Madison in
the Sun Belt Championship game. And you know, if Duke
beats Virginia in the ACC title game. That that could
mean James Madison gets into the playoff because remember the
playoff format is the top five ranked conference champions get
the automatic bids. Top five highest ranked conference champions get
automatic bids. If Duke beats Virginia and becomes ACC champion,
Duke will not be one of the five highest ranked
conference champions. You'll have the SEC, Big Ten, Big twelve,
the North Texas Tulane winner in the American and then
James Madison would be the fifth highest ranked conference champion.
The Dukes and Bob Chesney would get the automatic bid
into the playoff. If that happens, UCLA has said or
has agreed to or We'll let Bob Jesney coach James
Madison in the colle football playoff and then once the
playoff's over, Chesney can fully get to work leading UCLA.
So UCLA gets the ex James Madison coach or soon
to be ex James Madison coach. So the obvious plot
point here, UCLA hopes it has the new Kurt Signetti.
If Bob Chesney coming from James Madison can do anything
close to what Kurt Signetti has done at Indiana since
leaving James Madison. Well, UCLA is gonna have a really
good time and UCLA is going to be back to relevant.
So UCLA is following the James Madison path after Indiana
hired Kurt Signetti away from James Madison. That is the hope.
Can Chesney be Signetti two point zero or even Signetti
one point five or one point zero, that that is
the hope. And as we get into this UCLA situation,
you know, will Bob Chesney get the nil resources, the
overall structural an administrative alignment that he needs for UCLA
football to really succeed. And UCLA has to support Bob
Chesney with substantial resources. And if that doesn't happen, if
he's not getting administrative support, he can be a good coach,
but he's not going to get the kind of players
he needs. Now. One obvious plot point as part of
this is that Kurt Signetti brought a lot of James
Madison players to Indiana and he coached them up and
he won with them. So maybe Bob Chesney could do
the same thing. You know, not not five stars and
four stars, but James Madison players, just coaching them up. Well,
like that you can really tell that UCLA wants to
have a repeat of Signetti only in Westwood, and we'll
see if the Bruins can do enough administratively as a school,
as a football program to make it happen and put
Bob Chesney in position to succeed. That's going to be
very interesting next year. Bruins made on paper a great
hire spicing things up, and you know, Bob Chesney versus
Lincoln Riley next year that could be very interesting, That
could be really really compelling. Can't wait to see that
particular coaching matchup in twenty twenty six. All right, now
to the main course in the big ten, Oregon over Washington.
You know, so Washington's demand Williams, he just doesn't have it.
And Jed Fish has not gotten the elite quarterback you
play that his predecessor, Kaylin de Boer had at the
University of Washington with Michael Pennix. Washington needs that elite quarterback.
It's obviously the most important position on the field, and
Washington had that rock star quarterback with Pennix. Clear downgrades
the last few years Will Rogers last year, Demond Williams
this year. And so Washington's offense just you know, was
pretty well contained by Oregon's defense. Oregon was in control
of that game the whole way because Oregon's offense is
not amazing and Oregon's been dealing with some injuries and limitations.
You know, Oregon didn't do a ton, but whenever Oregon
had to do something on offense, it did, And so
the Ducks won, you know, not a blowout, but a
comfortable win. They were always in charge of that game.
So Washington and Jed Fish have to go back to
the drawing board and need that upgrade at quarterbacks for
twenty twenty six. Oregon now safely in the playoff, and
it's going to be really interesting to see what unfolds there.
And you know, before I talk about Oregon in the playoff,
you have to consider this point too. Oregon's two coordinators,
will Stein on offense and the aforementioned Tosh Lupoy on defense,
they could both go. You know, will Stein might go
to Kentucky to replace Mark Stoops. Will Stein is a
Kentucky native, so there's a lot of speculations swirling around there.
And of course we've already mentioned Tosh Lupoy could go
to cal could go to Berkeley be hired by Ron
Rivera as head coach, so Dan Lanning might have two
coordinators to replace, not just one in the coming weeks,
but Oregon in the playoffs. And now we get to
a point where, you know, I'm not going to talk
about the Ohio State Indiana matchup like the x'es and
o's the keys to the game, because that's what Noah
Drury and the Big Ten Paradigm are for. They Noah
Drury covers the Big Ten out, you know, the whole
Big Ten. I just covered the Big Ten in the
West and the four West Coast schools that are part
of the Big Ten. So I have to let Noah
Drury handle that so that you can get Ohio State
Indiana everything you want on that game over at Big
Ten Paradigm. Another College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast. But
here's what I'm going to say about Ohio State Indiana
just on a larger level with regard to college football scheduling.
And you remember last year, Oregon was the number one
team twelve to zero, went to the Big Ten championship game.
Ohio State was ten and two, but got into the
playoff and you know, did not but did not have
to play in the Big Ten Championship game. Which team
won in the playoff and which team played better in
the playoffs. It was the team that didn't have to
play in the Big Ten Championship game. Ohio State got
that weekend off. Oregon had to work that weekend and
play Penn State in the Big Ten Title Game, and
Ohio State was able to rest up for the first round,
develop momentum, beat Tennessee and then going to the Rose Bowl,
and it absolutely annihilated Oregon. And I said last year,
and I wrote this at Trojans Wire, and if you
google Oregon doesn't deserve to be in Big Ten Championship
Game Trojans Wire, if you google that, you'll get a
link to my article which I wrote last year, and
I said Oregon doesn't deserve to be in the Big
Ten Championship Game. Now, on the surface that it feels
like a dis toward Oregon, but what I was really
saying and like Oregon didn't deserve to be in the
Big Ten championshi Game last year, it deserved better, not
worse better. Oregon deserved to have that weekend off. It
should have been Ohio State and in maybe Indiana playing
or it should have been Indiana versus Penn State, but
Oregon definitely should have had that weekend off to rest,
and now it's flipped now this year, it's a total
role reversal. How State's unbeatn Indiana's unbeaten. They're playing each other,
but they should both be called Big ten co champions
for twenty twenty five, and it should be Oregon playing
in Indianapolis. And obviously it wouldn't be a Big Ten
championship game because Ohio State in Indiana would be co champions.
But like Oregon should be playing let's say Texas in
what we could call the Big Ten playoff game, a
Big ten team versus another team as kind of a
playoff play in game or bubble game. That's the adjustment
that should be made at Ohio State and Indiana. They've
earned first round byes that they should be getting a
week to rest. And it's interesting, you know, Oregon. I
mentioned Oregon is dealing with a lot of injuries, So
Oregon by not playing in the Big Ten Championship game,
that helps Oregon because Oregon doesn't have to play another game,
a non playoff.
Speaker 3: Game, and can rest up and heal and so the
Ducks might be a much much better team when they
get to the playoff because some guys will be off
the shelf, they'll be back in action, they will have
gotten rest and recuperation.
Speaker 2: But it really is backwards in the twelve team playoff era,
you know, in the BCS era and in the four
team playoff era, those conference championship games usually meant a lot.
You usually had to finish the deal to get into
a four team playoff. But now in the twelve team playoff,
it has completely flipped these teams. Most league, you know,
like Virginia has to win to the ACC title game
to get in, James Madison has to win the Sun
Belt title to get in. North Texas and Twain have
to win their game to get in. So the the
lower conferences, the smaller conferences. Yeah, but Georgia and Alabama
are both in. Maybe you could say if Alabama gets
blown out by Georgia, maybe Alabama no longer has a
playoff spot. But I would think that since Alabama has
already beaten Georgia, they're not going to punish Alabama for
earning the thirteenth game and playing Georgia twice. I think
Alabama is in regardless, but maybe if Georgia wins by thirty,
maybe that's what gets Alabama out and puts either Miami
or Notre Dame in replacing the Tide. But for the
most part, for the most part, you know, and it's
especially true in the Big Ten, if you're obviously in
the playoff, having the conference championship game like it doesn't
further you're in interests, and these conferences should make the
adjustment of just saying, hey, we'll declare a conference champion
and we'll use the television property, We'll use that real estate,
we'll use that four hour TV window in order December.
We'll still play a game in Indianapolis, or for the
SEC Atlanta, or for the Big twelve Arlington, or for
the ACC Charlotte. We'll still play a game in those stadiums,
and the rights, the TV rights holders will still have
a game to show, but instead of having it be
a championship game, it could just be a playoff game.
So imagine this, and this goes beyond the Big Ten.
Instead of having the conference championship games we currently have,
and you know, some people will get excited about Ohio State, Indiana,
I'm not really all that thrilled about it, because you know,
they could meet in the playoff, semi finals or championship
game in a month. Why have them play now, Like,
let's just save it for the semis or the title.
Right now, it just feels like an extra game, an appendage,
a chore. You know, in the old days, a one
versus two meeting in December was basically for the national title.
It was it was an ultimate event, like a really
good example Texas versus Arkansas December nineteen sixty nine, Like
that game was everything, it was everything. President Nixon was there,
Richard Nixon was there, and it's still written and talked
about over fifty five years later. But it's because it
meant everything. But now, in a twelve team playoff context,
a one versus two December game, it's just kind of
all right, it's a nice television event, but it's not
hugely significant because both Ohio State and Indiana are going
to be going to have first round byes in the playoffs.
So really it's about just don't get anyone hurt in
this game. And that's not how it should feel. That's
not how it should be. But I hope you can
all consider and realize how different things are in the
twelve team playoff era, just to deal with the ACC.
I know this is not about the West, but I'm
talking about college football nationally, and you know, there are
things worth discussing about college football on a national level
this week because we can see how deficient the product
is and how a few obvious adjustments can make it better.
With the ACC, you know, Duke has five losses. It
should have been obvious last year when Clemson won the
ACC with three losses, it should have been obvious, Oh wow,
a three loss conference champion. What if a conference champion
has four or five losses? Should we allow that team
into the playoff? Could have just had a role, could
have just implemented a policy which said, you know what,
if you have more than three losses, you don't get
an automatic spot in the conference championship game and you
don't get an automatic berth into the playoff. The AEC
could have made that role, but it didn't. So instead
of Miami, which you know has a legitimate playoff argument,
instead of Miami getting a chance to play its way
in we have five loss Duke in that game didn't
have to happen. But the ACC did not make a
common sense rule, and like all the power conferences should
be making these kinds of rules, Like there should not
be four or five lost teams in these games on Saturdays.
It should be you know, teams that are on the
playoff bubble getting their chance to play in play their
way into the field. So imagine this. Imagine if we
didn't have Duke in Virginia in Charlotte instead we had
Notre Dame versus Texas or Alabama. Pretty big upgrade, right,
And what if in the SEC change a game because
you know, again, Georgia is a playoff lock. Georgia doesn't
need to be playing this weekend, right, Georgia's in the playoffs.
So this SEC title game is just an appendage called
Georgia the SEC champion award Georgia the SEC Championship, and
have Alabama play Miami in Atlanta. Isn't that so much better?
Isn't that just a massive massive upgrade of the product.
You know, college football just is so very dumb about
these things, right. You know, I do write for a
publication called College Sportswire. That's in addition to the my
editing duties at Trojan's Wire and UCLA Wire and that
college College Sports Wire should say, I wrote a piece
right before the Michigan Ohio State game. We'recalling the most
important Michigan Ohio State game ever. And you want to
read that piece, you know, you can just google the
most important Michigan State, Michigan Ohio State game ever College
Sports Wire, you'll get that link. But the nineteen seventy
three Michigan Ohio State game is the most important Michigan
Ohio State football game ever played. Now why it was
a tie and at the time, the Big Ten athletic
directors had to vote to break the tie. They voted
to decide which team was going to represent the Rose
Bowl or represent the Rose Bowl, represent the Big Ten
in the Rose Bowl the nineteen seventy four Rose Bowl
game at the end of the nineteen seventy three Big
Ten season, and the vote went to Ohio State. Ohio
State won the vote six to four. If it had
been a five to five tie, Michigan would have gone
because Ohio State went to the Rose Bowl the previous season.
But you know there's a history there. The Big Ten
used to have a policy in the nineteen sixties that
you could not go to the Rose Bowl in consecutive years.
Even if you won the league, the second year you
didn't go. They just they did not want the same
school representing the conference in consecutive seasons. They eventually did
away with that. But because Ohio State went to the
nineteen seventy three Rose Bowl, and then there was a tie,
a flat foot tie between Ohio State and Michigan in
nineteen seven three. If the ad, if the vote of
Big Ten Athletic directors was tied five to five, they
were going to give the tie to Michigan. So Ohio
State won the vote six to four. It goes to
the nineteen seventy four Rose Bowl and back in nineteen
seventy three, And of course I researched this for the
piece that I wrote at College Sports Wire. There were
only eleven bowl games in nineteen seventy three in college football,
so just twenty two teams. It was just the select
elite crop of teams going to a select few bowl games.
So you had the Big four, Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange.
The Fiesta Bowl was still a second tier bowl. It existed,
but it was a second tier game, you know, It
was not a game between top ten teams. Generally, the
Fiesta Bowl became a January game, a New Year's Day
game in nineteen eighty two. It was a December game
through nineteen eighty, so the Fiesta Bowl was not yet
a big time game. So that nineteen seventy three Michigan
Ohio State tie with Michigan having a great season but
not playing in any bowl game, that opened some eyes
in and around the Big Ten in college football. It
made people aware of, you know what, it's pretty absurd
to have really good teams not playing in these big
postseason bowl games just because they finished second in a
conference where they lost a tie of some kind. And
so a few years after that nineteen seventy three tie,
Michigan and it was playing Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
So Big ten teams were finally allowed to play non
Rose Bowl games for the first time. And then the
number of bowl games gradually grew and the sport got better,
and you had more interesting bowl games in late December
and also in early January, like a January second or
January third bowl game. The sport got better. And what
was also happening in that same era of college sports
was that the NCAA Tournament grew in size because, as
it was in football, you know, only the conference champion
went to the Rose Bowl Big Ten. It was similar
in college basketball, only the conference champion went to the
NCAA Tournament. You had great second place teams in various
conferences and they weren't able to be in the NCAA Tournament.
And the ultimate example of that was the nineteen seventy
four North Carolina State Maryland ACC Tournament championship game, one
of the greatest college basketball games ever played. NC State
wins a thriller, but that Maryland team, which you know,
in modern times would have been a number one seed,
like North Carolina State would have been the number one
seed in the East, and Maryland would have been a
number one seed in the South or the Midwest. Maryland
was a number one and see caliber team. But because
only the ACC tournament champion was allowed into the NCAA
Tournament back in nineteen seventy four, Maryland didn't qualify for
March Madness. And so that was kind of the epiphany
in college basketball, you know what, we need to expand
the NCAA Tournament, need to allow second place teams in.
We need to have at large bids. It was similar
to what happened with Michigan and Ohio State that nineteen
seventy three tie leads to the vote of the athletic directors.
Michigan doesn't play in any bowl game, and that woke
people up that you know, removed the role from people's eyes.
It made people see how dumb it was that Michigan
was not able to play in a bowl game, that
a really good second place team in a conference wasn't
allowed to play in the postseason. So I mentioned that
because you know, college football was really really really dumb
in nineteen seventy three. The NCAA tournament was really really
really dumb in nineteen seventy four, not allowing more teams in.
And it took these you know, major earthquake like moments,
these epic games to finally make people realize, Wow, the
way we've been doing things is really awful and it's
really hurting the product. And so the parallel to today
is obvious. You know, the way this postseason is structured,
the way these conference championship games are structured, it's so deficient,
it's woefully deficient. These aren't slight mistakes or imperfections. No,
like this is this weekend's horrible. If I may say so,
Duke Virginia ACC Title game, we already had a BYU
Texas Tech rematch, or we already had a BYU Texas
Tech game in the Big twelve. We want to see
that again. Georgia's in the playoff. Alabama is likely in
the playoff. I don't need to see them play again.
They played in Athens earlier this season. It should be
as I said it before, keep the TV properties, keep
the television rights holders in place, but have bubble play
in games Notre Dame versus Texas. You know, have have
a Miami play Alabama, you know, massive upgrade if we
used my system. But we don't have that. Uh. And
so that's my big overall point about Ohio State Indiana.
It's the least significant one versus two December game that
I can ever remember in college football history, because any
previous time you had one versus two in December, it
meant everything. But Ohio State Michigan two thousand and six
was late November. But like the winner knew it was
going to the national title game, and the loser knew
there was probably gonna be out, and you know, Florida
got in, so that became Ohio State Florida. So you know,
one versus two late season in two thousand and six. Yeah,
it felt like a huge event because you knew that
the winner was gonna play for the title and the
loser had the expectation that it was probably to be
left out. But now with the twelve team playoff, that
is completely different and the sport of college football has
not really adjusted. So that's a little perspective on Ohio
State Indiana. Not the matchup because you go to Noah
Drury and the Big Ten paradigm for that, but in
terms of the context and the significance of it, college
football really has to reform itself on so many levels,
and right now you just got a taste of it
here on Get Off My pilon So you know that
that is the season, folks. That is our series of
you know, major Saturday review shows here on Get Off
My Piline. We will come back next week to review
the coaching carousel, talk about the various programs that we cover,
the programs in the Western United States here on Get
Off my pilone, and that'll be it. That'll be our season.
Finale for two and twenty five, So coming back at
you one more show is part of the College gread
Down Coast to Coast podcast network. Next week here on
Get Off My Pilon, a reminder go to Yards and
Stripes for the Service Academies, Florida Football Insiders with Jason
Powers for all the Florida school news, John sumral to
Florida and Miami fighting for the playoff Berth and more. Also,
go to the All Sports Discussion podcast for the acc
and that mess with Virginia and Duke that I've alluded
to a little bit, Pigskin and Burnt ends as well.
That's another College Great Down podcast. So we're part of
the family and we're here for one more week Get
Off My Pilon covering college football in the Western United States.
So this is Matt Zemik. Thanks for listening to another
edition of Get Off My Pilon here on the College
Grade Down Coast to Coast Podcast Network season finale next week.
We'll talk to you then,