Speaker 1: Check it out college football on the West Coast. This
is Get Off My Pilon, a look at the PAC
twelve and more, part of the College Gridiron Coast to
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Grade Aron Coast to Coast podcasts. Of course, to Get
Off My Pilon we focus on western college football in
the United States, and so as we get into late November,
the final few weekends of the regular season before conference
Championship Saturday, what a turn of events in the Big Twelve,
and of course a lot of this has been happening
over the course of the full season. You know, we've
been talking about BYU, We've been talking about Colorado and
Coach Prime, and of course they're still right in the
thick of the race for the Big Twelve title and
a spot in the College Football Playoff. But now the
new card in the deck Arizona State. Arizona State doesn't
just beat Kansas State in Manhattan on the road at night,
but it was a convincing win. Final score twenty four
to fourteen doesn't really reflect the extent to which Arizona
State controlled that game. Arizona State got up big early
and Kansas State came back with a few touchdowns to
make the score cosmetically close. But this was ASU's game
start to finish. And so the Sun Devils, you know,
they're not just a really good running team. They can
throw the ball, they can play defense. You know, it's
true that in some of Arizona State's wins the Sun
Devils have had to scramble from behind. Did so against
Kansas did so against UCF. You know, those were games
in which Arizona State was out played for a good
portion but managed to scramble in the fourth quarter, much
as BYU has. We're going to obviously talk about that
in a little bit, but Arizona State had been coming
from behind a number of times. But in this game
against Kansas State, and to kind of frame this in
the context of the Big Twelve, Kansas State entered the
night as the one Big Twelve team where you could
you could reasonably say, all right, maybe not in a
brilliant season, but Kansas State pretty much played to expectations
this year. Kansas State was the one team in the
preseason top five of the Big twelve pole that you
generally lived up to the billing. The other four top teams,
you know, Utah, Oklahoma State, Kansas Arizona you know, all
massive disappointments. So Kansas State's the one Big twelve team
that was expected to be fairly good and more or
less lived up to expectations. But really, after this game,
we have to say, like none of the top five
lived up to expectations. For Kansas State to lose this
game to Arizona State and it essentially be out of
the conference title race with two games left in the season,
that's a definite disappointment. If Kansas State had finished the
season ten and two, but BYU and Colorado beat out
the Wildcats just because they were so good. And let's
remember Colorado. One of Colorado's losses was not a Big
twelve loss. It was to Nebraska, so Colorad with only
one Big twelve loss. So Kansas State beat Colorado in
Boulder head to head, but Colorado had the inside track
because Coloradle lost just one Big twelve game. If it
worked out that Colorado beat out a ten and two
Kansas State team. If you're Kansas State, under that scenario,
you just tip the cap, say hey, you know, we
will beat Colorado head to head and Boulder. But the
Buffs lost just one Big twelve game. They beat us
out in the race to the Big twelve title game.
You just credit the better team, the team that you
had the better season, if you're Kansas State. But now
the Kansas State has lost this third game that you
know that should rate as a disappointment. And you know,
the way the way that Kansas State was dominated by
Arizona State, that has to really sting for the Wildcats.
And and I mentioned it just because you know, we
don't follow Midwestern teams on this show, but just within
the context of the Big Twelve, I think we can
say each of now each of the top five. Kansas
State obviously not at a level of those other schools Utah, Arizona,
Oklahoma State, and Kansas but Kansas State did fall significantly
short of expectations. If Kansas State finished ten to two,
I think that would be a fine season, not a
great season, but a fine season. But really, with this
third loss, each of the teams picked in the top
five of the Big Twelve before the season, they all
fell well short of expectations. And I just bring that
up because in the Big Twelve it's basically been upside down.
Teams that were predicted to be at the bottom have
risen to the very top, teams predicted to be at
the top. All right, Kansas State didn't fall to the bottom,
but you know, it's in the kind of the second tier.
It's certainly out of the title chase. But you know,
so Arizona State, BYU Colorado, also Iowa State, teams not
expected to be at the top, they rise at Teams
expected to be at the top fell, you know, to
varying degrees, and it's it's been absolutely remarkable. It's hard
to think of another conference so completely upending the expected order.
You know, in the acc sm us A definite surprise.
But you know a lot of people did think Miami
could do well because the Hurricanes had a very favorable schedule.
That's what's happened, So that's not too much of a shock.
The Big Twelve, it's been seismic the extent to which
expectations and results have completely flipped. You know, what was
expected to happen before the season, basically nothing came to pass,
and it's been the projected underclass that has become the
ruling class in the Big Twelve. So that brings us
to this remarkable Big Twelve title chase. You know, we
expected to have an Arizona team in the Hunt, but
it's Arizona State, not Arizona, complete flipping of expectations. We
expected to have a Utah based team in the Hunt,
but it's BYU not Utah, completely flipping the script there
as well. And then of course Colorado and Coach Prime
the Buffs, you know they are, they are oh so close,
and they have to face the Kansas team that just
went into provo and ruined BYU's unbeaten season, and that
leads us to the situation that we have in the
Big Twelve right now, where b Yu versus Arizona State.
You know, when you look at the slate for college
football on Saturday, November twenty third, the number one game
is that Indiana Ohio State game. And we will talk
about Oregon and the Big Ten a little bit. In
our survey of western college football, that's the number one
game on the board, the number two game in college football,
the second most important game relative to the playoff, you know,
and in terms of like there's actually drama in terms
of who's going to win and how it's how it's
going to affect everything. The second biggest game of November
twenty third is BYU Arizona State. And then find me
one person who even forget about before this season and
in late August finding me a person who won month
ago was saying, Hey, that by UASU game could define
the whole season, it could define the playoff, it could
decide the Big twelve champion. That's where we are. That's
definitely where we are. You know. The the winner of
BYU Arizona State probably goes up against Colorado. Now, if
Colorad loses to Kansas, there's going to be a you know,
a different set of scenarios. But if Colorado does beat Kansas.
Then we're looking at Colorado versus the winner of this
Arizona State BYU game. It's it's just remarkable how centrally
important an as U b YU Week thirteen game has
become in college football. And I tweeted this out late
Saturday night on Twitter at Matt Zemeck that you know,
the two biggest games of November twenty third Week thirteen
in a college football season involved Indiana, Arizona State and BYU.
Absolutely unreal, absolutely unreal the journey that this season has taken.
So that's the landscape in the Big Twelve. And one
of the stories attached to this is Who's Big Twelve
coach of the year. Kalani Sataki very very clearly was
the front runner entering this past weekend. I mean, his
team had not lost any games. Arizona States lost twice,
you know, the Sun Devils losing to Cincinnati, but that
wasn't their only loss of the season. So you know, Sataki,
with b YU being unbeaten, he was clearly in the
driver's seat. But now now we do have to wonder,
you know, is coach Prime Deon Sanders in the mix?
You know? Maybe? I mean I think if Coloradle wins
the Big Twelve championship at this point, that's going to
be a very strong arm argument for Dion. If the
Buffaloes do get it done, if they can go all
the way and make the playoff, that you know, it
would be hard to argue against that. So, you know,
after the Big Twelve champions game, we might be sitting
there saying that that coach Prime is the guy. But
now Kenny Dillingham of Arizona State, he has firmly inserted
himself into this race. I mean Arizona State having just
two losses and having a chance to win the Big
Twelve and go to the College Football Playoff. Arizona State,
a team that you know, lot was three and nine
last year, obviously had a bunch of injuries. That's something
that I focused on. You know that It's not as
though that was the full measure of what Arizona State
could be. It's not as though it was a terrible team.
That was an injury ravaged team, and Dillionham actually did
well with what he had. Nevertheless, nevertheless, to see ASU
go from that low to that high, it's kind of
a similar to Colorado. Colorado you know had the miserable
finish to twenty twenty three and has just flipped it
all around. That's the that's the that's the theme of
the Big Twelve. It's basically real estate. It's flipping. A
lot of flipping in the Big Twelve. That's the theme
of twenty twenty four in that conference. But Kenny Dillingham
has to be considered. And obviously, obviously if aras on
the State goes out and beats b YU, which coach
is in better position for Big Twelve Coach of the Year,
it would probably dilling be dilling Ham at this point.
You know, if if he beats b YU and if
Sataki and BYU win, then you know, Sataki probably firms
up his grip on the award. But but you have
Colorado there, paraud wins the whole shebang and gets to
the College Football Playoff with an eleven and two record,
it will be very hard to argue against coach Bryan
so an amazing conference title race, an amazing college football
playoff race, an amazing Coach of the Year race in
the Big Twelve, and they all involve Western programs BYU, Colorado,
Arizona State. In terms of just looking at this BYU
Arizona State game. I mean, we have to touch on
BYU's lost to Kansas, and you know, for those of
you who are interested in betting, not necessarily in terms
of making money, but just in terms of you know,
how did these lines arrive at certain places and how
do these guys in Vegas know so much? Well, you know,
we got another example on this past Saturday, right BYU
was unbeaten, Kansas was three and six, and yet BYU
was just a two and a half point favorite at
home at night. You know, how was that line so low?
And this was one of those Vegas knows moments right
that you know, BYU was coming off the very emotional,
draining win over Utah. And by the way, I do
need to get in a word about that that BYU
Utah game. The camera angles that we all had that
we all saw on ESPN for that holding call against
Utah the end of the BYU game. You know, I
said it was a questionable holding call, the one that
Utah was right to be angry about. It was based
on the television angles that were available. All right. I
always say when I when I live tweet football games,
and I wish we had another angle, you know, to
show us a better view of the play. Well, during
the week, a BYU fan tweeted out an angle from
the opposite side of the field, like around the twenty
yard line thereabouts on that side of Rice Echul Stadium
in Salt Lake City. He had his camera out, his
his his phone out, and he clipped a live video,
you know, an in motion moving picture of that play
from the opposite sideline. That camera angle something that we
did not have access to on ESPN's production truck. ESPN
never provided an angle remotely close to this one that
BYU fans camera showed. Oh yes, it was definitely a hole.
That that there was a fat jersey grab that steered
the b YU receiver off balance. It's not as that
the BYU receiver stumbled, which is what it appeared to
be from the high press box camera angle on the
ESPN show. The ESPN broadcast. Now this BYU fans angle
from the opposite side of the field, it did show, Yes,
it was a hold. So that you know, that puts
a lot of what happened after the BYU game in
a different light. And so you know, Utah was not jobbed.
Let's let's just clear that for the record, but again,
nice to have a different angle. It just wasn't provided
by ESPN, so definitely had to get that on the
record as part of this Get Off My Pylon college
Football podcast. All right, So back to BYU and Kansas.
So Vegas knew, Vegas knew that after the draining Utah
game there's gonna be a tough turnaround and Kansas is
playing better. Kansas beat Iowa State the week before, so
like this is a talented Kansas team. The record doesn't
show it at four and six, but you know, Kansas
has been competitive. Kansas almost beat Arizona State, Kansas led
Arizona State going in the final few minutes, and again,
as I mentioned earlier, Arizona State's been scrambling to win
a few of its games this year. That was one
of them. It was a late game score. ASU rescued
itself against Kansas, and who knew just how big that
game would be between Kansas and ASU. But Kansas has
been right there in a competitive, parody filled Big Twelve conference.
It just hasn't finished a lot of games, and Kansas
has been a terrible team at the ends of halves.
First half, second half. Kansas has allowed so many end half,
you know, last two minutes of the half touchdowns this season.
It's been remarkable to see. But Kansas has been close
and Vegas knew that. So that's part of you know
that that helps explain and provide a little bit of
context for Kansas being BYU. I mean, it was a
significant result and it might have been a mild surprise
to some, but it's not. It's not this mammoth shocker
BYU playing on the edge all season long and finally
fell off the edge. You know, that's basically the story.
BYU almost lost to Oklahoma State at home, and Oklahoma
State's at the bottom of the Big Twelve, So don't
be two shocked by it. I will admit to being
somewhat surprised. And one thing we have to say in
terms of you know who's Big Twelve coach of the Year,
Kalani Sataki and his offensive staff, they really dropped the
ball at the end there against Kansas. Three straight runs
on first and ten in the red zone. First down.
Don't mind it all because you're trying to drain the clock.
You don't want to score with giving Kansas too much
time to respond. That's fine, second down, I can still
see it. You know, you want to make Kansas use
another time out, you want to run more time off
the clock. That's still fair. But really, third down, there's
absolutely no excuse. You have to throw the ball, and
Byu ran the ball and really just narrowed its amount
of options. That was poorly handled. That was poorly handled
by Byu. And so if if you're weighing in on
the Big twelve Coach of Year debate, you're arguing for
Dillingham or Dion Sanders, You're gonna look at that Sataki
sequence for Byu is one of the reasons why it
should either be Dillionham or coach Prime. So Byu had
a chance to mount another late rally, but play calling
really got to the Cougars, and of course, you know
they just they had a flat offensive game. That's gonna happen.
That's why, that's why going twelve and oh, thirteen and
oh was one of the hardest things in sports. It's
why Florida State's record deserved a playoff bid last year.
You know, cast aside whatever you want to say about
Jordan Travis being injured and who would have won on
a neutral field, that's really not how we should select
playoff teams. Florida State went unbeaten. That should have been honored.
It wasn't. If BYU had been able to go thirteen
and oh, that should be honored. Obviously we won't have
that scenario. But you know, for people who want to
minimize going unbeaten against a power for a conference schedule,
you know, we found out again how tough that really is.
BYU experiencing the bitter herbs of that particular loss to Kansas.
So BYU Arizona State. Can BYU mentally reset that. That's
going to be a challenge because if the Utah game
was draining, it was a game BYU won, but it
was draining. This Kansas game was draining. It was a slot,
it was an uphill battle. It's a game in which
BYU never really felt comfortable. Kansas got the early lead,
BYU never really felt in control, had some moments of quality,
but never fully took over that game. And so you
have to wonder if BYU is hitting a wall here,
does this team hit the reset button and bounce back
with a really vigorous, strong performance, or, as Marty Schottenheimer
would say, the pilot lights out is the pilot light
going to go out on BYU and this season Arizona
State meanwhile playing its best football the year. Right now,
it goes into Kansas State and again takes care of
business pretty cleanly and convincingly. I would say that just
if you asked a panel of ten fifteen college football
experts who's going to win, I'd say most of them
would lean to Arizona State. I would probably slightly lean
in that direction. But really I have no clue who's
going to win this game because I have had no
clue about the Big Twelve all season long. It's been
the hardest conference to predict. Just when you're thinking a
team's gonna zig a Zags and vice versa, Big Twelve
has just been incredibly slippery. And what I said earlier
about how the teams predicted to finish at the top
have been middle or bottom, and the teams predicted to
finish at the bottom have risen to the top. It's
the most upside down conference I can ever remember relative
to preseason expectations. You know, it's not as though it's
just one or two teams that have confounded. It's been
pretty much the whole darn conference. You know, it's been
like the whole top third has been bottom third or middle,
and the whole bottom third or middle has gone to
the top. Just absolutely remarkable. So the Big twelve has
become the story in the Western United States. And you know,
before the season, I'm thinking, you know, Kansas State's gonna
be there. You know, maybe Kansas gets in as well.
You know, it's gonna be in the Sunflower State, it's
gonna be in the in the central planes that those
are going to be the main players, and and then
and Utah being the main Western team. UH, with Arizona
also having a shot. It just hasn't worked out that way.
It's been a very different, uh Big twelve race compared
to anyone's set of preseason expectations. Let's hit on the
group of five and and and Boise State over the
Mountain West and Boise State, it's a secondary got shredded
by San Jose State, but the Broncos were able to
gradually work their way back into that game against ken
New Montalolo and the Bowl bound Spartans. A very good
comeback for Boise State and what was a natural ambush
spot Boise State not playing well, you know, barely beat Nevada.
That was not a comfortable win or a good performance.
And this was an up and down performance as well.
But the Broncos at least survive, you know when your clunkers.
And and so with Tulane an Army playing in the
AAC Championship game, you know, the Tulane's really good John
Someraw the replacement for Willie Fritz. He seems to have
a be on track to have an excellent career. I
mean John Somemraw could be a really good coach for
a very long time in this business. So Army not
only has to face more Dame and has to get
through that challenge, but then it will then need to
get past uh Tulane as well. If Boise State can
go twelve and one the Broncos, you know, the odds
are that Army loses at least once, if not twice,
and that should mean that Boise State will get the
Group of five championship in the spot in the College
Football playoffs. But but you know, the Broncos have not
been strong in the past few weeks. They need to
firm things up so that they don't get ambushed before
the end of the season. Ashton Genty staying on course
for a Heisman finalist spot behind Colorado's Travis Hunter. Travis
Hunter makes some more highlight reel plays against Utah and
that was on Fox Big New Saturday. It's hard to
see Travis Hunter losing at this point, but Ashton Genty
should definitely be a Heisman finalist. Let's all keep in mind.
Also keep in mind that Oregon quarterback Dylan Gabriel did
not have a great game against Wisconsin. That should pretty
much solidify Hunter as the leader for the award. It
should also enable a lot of voters to put Ashton
Genty ahead of Dylan Gabriel in terms of maybe second
place votes instead of third place votes. That gent should
be higher on the list than Dylan Gabriel for work
comprying just those two players. It's notable, though, that three
of the four top Heisman candidates, cam Ward of Miami
being the other or from the West. It's gonna be
interesting to see how the final few weeks of the
season reshaped the Heisman calculus, if at all, so, Ashton
Gente and Boise State both going down the stretch with
so much to play for, We're going to get to
Oregon a bit. But the other story, Washington State from
the pack to the two pack ambushed at New Mexico,
and so Washington State's dream of going eleven and one
and at least giving the committee something to think about
in the larger playoff chase, that dream dies in Washington State.
That defense just wasn't able to get enough stops. If
Washington State was not getting turnovers, it was hard for
that team to separate itself from the competition. And let's
remind you Washington State trailed San Jose State late on
that Friday night several weeks ago, had to kick a
fifty two yard field goal at the end of regulation
to that game and send it into overtime. Washington State,
like BYU, another team that was living on the edge
a number of times this season. Washington State also was
lucky to beat San Diego State. That was a very
very close game twenty nine to twenty six, a game
in which Washington State trailed for large portions of play.
Washington State living on the edge again, like BYU, it
fell off that edge in Albuquerque and a very impressive
win for Bronco menden Hall and the Lobos. They did
not give up on their season. They had it rough
for several weeks, but they have not stopped battling. And
so if you're a New Mexico fan, you're thinking, you know,
Bronco menden Hall has this program headed in the right direction.
Maybe next year New Mexico could climb even higher in
the Mountain West. But Washington State's aspirations of the playoff
or at least a big Bowl game, a New Year's
Six game, those aspirations seem to have died in Albuquerque.
All right, Now we get to the Big Ten and
now we get to Oregon. And it has to be
said that in this twelve team playoff season, the idea
that the twelve team playoff was going to kill the
fun of the regular season. You know, all these heavyweight teams, well,
of course they're going to be in the playoff. You know,
there's no question that, you know, Alabama, Georgia are going
to be in the playoff. Hey, they can lose one
or two games and still get in. This season hasn't
really unfolded that way, Like Alabama is not a shoeing. Now, Alabama,
you know, is likely to get in, but you know,
still has to play Oklahoma and Auburn in the final
two weeks and Alabama, you know, has had some unsteady moments,
so it doesn't seem like a done deal. But I
would say that Alabama has to like its position. Give
them the number of quality wins on the resume. Now, again,
I'm not talking about Western teams right now, but I'm
trying to make larger point that connects back to Oregon.
You know, the SEC is probably going to get four
teams into the playoffs. The worry is that the SEC
will get five, and that might come at the expense
of Indiana. If Indiana goes eleven to one, yeah, that
would be pretty bad. I would not like that. I
would not think it was right either, you know, because
that fifth if there are five SEC teams in at
least you know that that fifth team is going to
have at least two losses, maybe three. It would be
very bad. If there was a three loss SEC team
getting in over one loss Indiana, that would not go
down well. We'll just have to wait and see what
it happens, but that would not go down well. The
point I'm making though with the SEC is that you
don't have teams that have you know fully tucked away
these playoff spots. You know, it's not as though Georgia
and Alabama are definitely in Okay, they still have work
to do, So it hasn't been an open and shut case,
all right. So in that sense, the twelve team playoff
has not diminished or diluted the drama of the rigular season.
But here's the example where it has. That Oregon Wisconsin game.
That was the example of the twelve team playoff really
reducing the amount of drama, suspense, emotional impact, and heft.
That was a case of the twelve team playoff taking
away some of the excitement from a college football moment.
Because we all knew Oregon loses to Wisconsin, Ducks are
still firmly, firmly in the playoff because they beat Ohio State,
they were unbeaten, you know, Penn State with a loss,
Ohio State with a loss, Indiana likely to lose against
Ohio State. Ducks are getting in even if they lose
to Wisconsin. You know, they just need to take care
of Washington at home and they go to the Big
Ten championship game. So that actually was a case of
twelve team playoff taking a little bit of juice out
of a college football moment. Obviously, Wisconsin didn't complete the upset,
but you know, the drama, the theatrical value of Oregon
potentially losing wasn't nearly as great as it would have
been if we had a four team playoff, Right, if
we had a four team playoff, that Oregon Wisconsin game
would have been ten times one hundred times more dramatic
than it actually was. So we finally had a true
instance of the twelve team playoff taking a little bit
of the bite out of the college football season, and
Oregon was the example. And so it's gonna be interesting
to see how how many times that scenario gets replicated
in future seasons. And you know, we've have the schedules,
different schedules for next year have largely been created and finalized.
But you know, if we're trying to think about how
conference schedules should be done in twenty twenty six and
twenty twenty seven and on and on, there are some
interesting takeaways here now that we're kind of getting into
late November and we're seeing the scenarios play out in
the various conferences. And there's there's one a person I
talked to on college football Twitter made a very interesting point.
He said, you know, because Oregon's basically in the playoff now,
it should rest its starters for the next game. Well
two things. One, Oregon is actually off for November twenty third,
this coming weekend, so Oregon actually will get two weeks
of rest. But let's say let's say that Oregon did
not have November twenty third off. All right, I mean,
this person's making a really important point here. The point was,
you know, because the Big Ten Championship game is right
around the corner, you don't want to play your starters
full tilt if you don't have to. You want to
rest them up for the Big Ten Championship game, which
you know, if you win, you get home field advantage,
or not home field advantage, you get the buye. You
don't have to play in a first round game. You
go straight into the quarterfinals. So that wow, Like that
was a really eye opening point about the late season
schedule and who does Oregon play next again, Oregon has
two weeks off. But still the other point to make here,
Oregon's playing Washington the week before the Big Ten Championship game,
and of course Oregon and Washington hate each other. That
is a big time rivalry. Oregon hates Washington more than
it hates Oregon State. Just in case anyone's not clear
about that, if you don't follow college football and college
sports in the way best the way I do, I
can tell you Washington is the much bigger deal than
Oregon State. It's not doesn't mean Oregon State's not a
big deal to the Oregon Ducks. It definitely is. That's
that's you know, in state bragging rights, of course, but
Washington is the much much bigger deal for an Oregon
Duck fan. That's a that's that's a bitter rival. You know,
Oregon Oregon State is that whole you know, office co
workers thing. You know, you know, you're a Duck, You're
you're uh co workers, a beaver. You want to have
the bragging rights, and it's certainly important, like USC and
UCLA are about to have their rivalry this week. Uh,
you certainly want to win that game. But Oregon Washington,
it's bitter, it's nasty. They hate each other. So Oregon's
not gonna, uh, you know, take it easy on Washington.
You know, that's not a game where you want to
take it easy on you on your bitter rival. It
brings up the point about conference scheduling though, right, you
shouldn't be scheduling your bitter rival the week before, uh
the conference championship game, you know, And so in future years,
in future seasons, three four years from now, you have
to wonder will the will various schools say, oh, we
don't want to be in the position that Oregon's in, where,
you know, we we want to beat our arch rival.
But that's right before the rival that's right before the
conference championship game, which is right before the college football playoff.
You don't want to create that stack of must win situations.
So the point is based on, you know, this interesting
observation made by you know, a friend of mine on
college football Twitter. His and by the way, his name
is Tucker Blankenship. Uh you can just you can just
look him up if you'd like. Very smart sports fan, uh,
really really astute observation from Tucker. In the future, you know,
if I'm Oregon or if I'm another high powered school,
do I want my rivalry game to be at the
very end of November? You know, obviously you don't want
to play it in the September or early October. Okay,
but maybe you move it up to mid November this
past weekend instead of a November thirty game, it's a
November sixteen game. Now, Ohio State and Michigan fans, you know, like,
for them, the tradition of playing at the very end
of the season, you know that matters. So maybe they
might not want their game to move. But I can
certainly imagine other fans seeing Oregon situation thinking, you know
what we should we don't have to play our arrivalry
game at the very end of the season. Okay, you know,
we can move it up a couple of weeks, maybe
even just one week, so that then the week before
the conference championship game we can rest or or you
know something like that. Maybe you know, if that if
that weekend isn't idle, you play cupcake game, then you
don't play the Cupcake game in September. You play that
Cupcake game on November thirtieth, Thanksgiving weekend, so that you
get a chance to rest your starters for the conference
championship game and then for the playoff. So that's a
really really important point made by my friend Tucker Blankenship
on Twitter. Just a great observation, and there will be
more to be said about that and other parts of
this playoff process and this playoff formula that are all
still coming into place as we as we go Alarm
and as we see more parts of the playoff mechanism
coming together or perhaps falling apart, depending on your point
of view, there will be a lot more to be
said about all of these different stories. But Oregon and
its situation playing Washington the week before the Big Ten
champis your game like that is notable for so many
different reasons. The Ducks are going to be in the playoff,
but how they get into the playoffs, you know, how
they get there, that's going to be a continuous talking
point and how it's going to affect Oregon once it
eventually does start its playoff journey in the middle of
December or perhaps or perhaps in the quarterfinal round as well.
So all these balls in the air in the Big Twelve,
in the in the Big Ten, and in the Group
of five the Mountain West Boise State, you want to
be following all of these plot points, all of these
storylines here on the Get Off My Pilon college Football
podcast looking at college football in the Western United States.
Heisman Trophy as well, you know, that's a West dominated race,
to be sure. So we're going to be keeping you
in touch with these various stories, yes, and it's going
to be incredibly thrilling to see how all these plot
points get resolved over the next few weeks. It's going
to be exciting, and it's something that really none of
us anticipated before the season. Now, Oregon we did, but
just about everything else BYU, Colorado, Arizona State, the Heisman Trophy,
Ashton gent, so many different Western storylines that are at
the forefront of the national college football conversation. EYU and
Arizona State playing the second most important game of November twenty,
third week thirteen. Who would a thunket. It's been a
wild ride this far and it's going to be an
even wilder ride in the weeks ahead. Here on the
Get Off My Pylon College Football podcast. So college football fans,
the season is winding down. But hey, like if you
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is Mad Zemik. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.