Season Kickoff Special + Week Zero Reaction & LSU vs SEC

0:00With the Discover Cash Back Card, it's payback time when you earn cash back on everyday purchases. Activate and earn 5% cash back at different categories each quarter on up to $1,500 in purchases. That's 5% cash back at different places each quarter, like grocery stores, on gas, and at restaurants. It pays to discover. Terms apply. See Discover.com slash 5 for details. 5. Tri-Demol Only Admit Dogs Enjoy big savings with Red Hot Deals at Vons and Albertsons. This week at Vons and Albertsons, baby back pork ribs are 2.99 per pound with membership where applicable limit three racks. And ballpark hot dogs or hamburger buns 8 count are 2.99 with digital coupon. Plus personal seedless watermelons or canelope are 1.99 each with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit vonsoralbertsons.com for more deals and ways to save.

1:07When it comes to accessing your home's value, what you don't know might be the only thing standing in your way. I don't understand. Exactly. Huh? An H.E.I. from Splatero will give you a lump sum of cash upfront in exchange for a share of your home's future value. An H.E.I. What's the difference between that and a heat lock? Everything then matters. A heat lock is alone with variable interest rates that often have DTI requirements and monthly payments. With a Splatero H.E.I. there is no DTI requirement, and most importantly, no monthly payments. Oh, I like that one. The no payments one. Of course, you're smart. And check this out. A heat lock has strict income and credit requirements. A Splatero H.E.I. requires only a 500 minimum credit score and no income requirement. So much better. It seems like the only reason to confuse them is that they both start with H. Just remember Splatero. H.E.I. means Splatero. Visit spltitiro.com today and access your home's equity. No monthly payments, just cash in hand. Splatero.

2:25I don't know how you can say still. And I really don't know how to describe tonight's show. It's like it's a season kickoff show. It's an end-to-weeds show. It's an orientation show. It's a homecoming. You know, because as much as I tell you guys, we are year-round college football. Wall to wall never leave, never taken off season. Some of you do. And I cannot legally stop you. Just like the SEC can't stop LSU from doing whatever they want to. But I know eventually, you come back. And we will have a massive amount of people tuned in tonight on this Sunday, August 30th, the year of our Lord, 2026, high atop a sultry downtown Nashville, Tennessee, that we may not have seen for a while and even better, Jesse. We may have folks just flat out tuned in for the first time. We do claim to be America's college football show after all. And so for those of you who are new around here and those of you who just need a little refresher towards the end of tonight's show, my vow to you. I will tell you everything you need to know about this show. Every inside reference explanation, everything we're going to do this fall, everything about the schedule is Friday night lines,

3:27even happening this year, Jesse. That's that's what chat wants to know. We'll talk about all of it. It is an insane week ahead because week one is upon us. There is a battle happening between LSU and Clemson on Saturday. There's a battle happening between LSU and the SEC. As we speak, that's going to ramp up towards the end of the week. But there's a crazy season ahead for us all. In the best of ways, chaos in your life is a terrible thing. Chaos in college football. It's beautiful. It's like a rainbow. And there's a bright, shiny rainbow above our heads right now, ladies and gentlemen. I've got plenty of week zero reaction. I saw you, Bill. I saw North Carolina yesterday. I watched every snap contrary to some of some corners of the internet's belief. All that plus, like I said, bull predictions later and an orientation before the show ends. They're watching us in Newcastle, Oklahoma, Athens, Ohio, Fort Worth, Texas, Bakersfield, California. Some people out there may be wondering, why are you talking like that? And I ask you, why are you not talking like this?

4:29It's the best time of the year. Maybe 114 degrees outside. But it's technically fall. It is upon us. And all I ask you to do is subscribe to the channel. This is college football. It's all we do. It's free. We're not charging you a dime. We're not asking you to sign up for anything. All I want you to do is subscribe to the channel because that is evidence to basically the rest of the free world that we're doing something right around here. Thank you guys so much. I thought tonight to start the show. I'm just going to talk about everything that's on my mind. Everything I think you need to know as we head into the college football season. There's nothing better than this sport. College football is one of one. We are huge believers in college football. Huge believers in fall Saturdays. They are undefeated. And there's nothing like a fall Saturday. I know a lot of you feel this way. And that's why we hang out together. But before I even start tonight, man, I got to give credit where it's due. Brady Kiker and the creative team down in Starkville, Mississippi. We're getting ready for the season at Mississippi State. And I don't even care if you're not a Mississippi state fan. Man, they put out a piece of content yesterday. Just so happens to have my voice over.

5:33But I didn't know it was coming either. It only is about a minute long. But man, if this does not capture everything that we're feeling right now, roll it Bradley. I will recruit you for college football by explaining to you the magic of Saturdays. And you wake up. It could be Friday morning, but maybe it's a Saturday morning and you step outside and you can feel it. You can feel college football in the air. The dew point is plummeted. Are those leaves changing colors? And no Saturdays. The urgency that I feel that most people who love the sport, the urgency that you feel in Saturdays again is unmatched above the sights and the sounds and the smells and the community and the relationships. All of those things. The coming together is so beautiful. The pinball windows are beautiful. The aftermath window is beautiful. The campus seat is beautiful. Urgency is beautiful. And it all starts with waking up on a fall Saturday. It's an unbelievable feeling.

6:37I wish everyone could experience it. Great job by them. That's what we're about on this show. That's what the folks who watch and listen to this show are about. And I appreciate you guys. So let's talk about this year. I don't think the top of the sport has ever been flatter than it is right now. And that's actually a good thing if you want competition, if you want chaos, if you don't want one or two teams pulling away from the pack. Because if you look at the odds to in the national championship, maybe 10 years ago, it would have been who Bama Clemson throwing George every now and then throwing Ohio State every now and then. But there would have been distance this year. Ohio State Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Indiana, Miami. That's kind of your lead pack. And I would argue I could easily see a team like Oklahoma, Texas, Texas, its own category. We'll talk about them a little later. LSU, Ole Miss, Alabama. And we could go beyond that list. There are a bunch of teams that are in

7:38prime position to compete for a national championship if things even go remotely right. And I want you to consider this, if we don't have a team break away, if Ohio State or Notre Dame or Texas, one of those teams, if Oregon really doesn't put their foot on the gas and become a definitive number one, we could have a November slash December for the ages. And I want to remind everyone, when I say pull away from the pack, I don't mean in the AP poll, I don't mean even in the J people. Because remember how thorough Ohio State looked like they were on the road to winning a national championship last year. And how early November, Jesse, you remember, if you even questioned Ohio State's validity, I mean, I said Miami practice is different than Ohio State and got ripped in the comments. So let's just be careful, because we know teams can hit the gas at the right time. But the reason why it's so flat immunity is because the landscape of the quarterback position has not looked like this in a long time. I was doing this exercise to the

8:42extreme the other day, and I was looking at the odds to win the Heisman trophy. CJ Carr is your favorite right now, Arches right behind him. I'm on Darian Mensa, that's my pick to win the Heisman, Dante Moore is up there, Julian Sand. But I want you to do me a favor. You're listening on podcast. You have to just close your eyes unless you're driving and you have to follow along with me. Here's how deep the quarterback position is this year. Remove the top 10. So two, four, six, eight, let's go all the way down to Sam Levit. If you were to remove the top 10 from the quarterback picture, on top 10, set them to the side. You still got Sam Levit there. You still got Keelan Russell at Alabama. Marcel Reed at one point last year was right up there in the odds to win the Heisman before that late season falloff happened. L'Henora Sellers is in this conversation. Drew Mastamek or Bryce Underwood. Like you could go on and on and on. Rocco Beck, fourth year starter. At Penn State now, Demon Williams is in here. Byron Brown's thrown for 10 million yards. He's

9:44starting for Auburn this year. I mean, Brahms got his hands on Lincoln-Keenholz. I've got all kinds of really, really high level quarterbacks. I mean, Kevin Jennings is a phenomenal player. And he's just in here. Like Faeson Brandon, granite. He's a first year starter. Austin Simmons. This time last year was the guy that Lane was hitching his wagon to. He's now starting for Missouri. Avery Johnson, somehow 34 years old, still playing college football. He's going to give it another go. Nico Yamaliava. Once upon a time, a five-star quarterback. He's in one of the most inviable positions in America because instead of someone inheriting him, he is inheriting Bob Chesney and everything that comes along with bringing a winning coaching staff to town. So, anyway, my point there is think about the concept of the upset. Think about the concept of uncertainty. The concept of chaos. You need two ingredients and we've got both here. Firstly, you need a flatter college football landscape and the portal and NIL have 1,000 percent done that. So, it's a lot

10:47more competitively balanced. And number two, you need a lot of people's fastball to be fast enough. And if you've got high level talent at quarterback, any given day that you play your A-game or better, you're probably capable of beating a whole lot of folks. In the past, the quarterback talent could be hoarded. And in the past, you get to have teams that have good rosters out there, but they didn't have the quarterback. So, they couldn't, they could extend that arm as far as they could. They couldn't quite land it on your jaw. A lot more teams can land a shot across, across Georgia's jaw, Ohio's stage jaw, not to mention your six through 10, 10 through 20 is going to be a total bloodbath this year because there's really not a lot of separation there. I think the SEC nine game league schedule is a huge deal. It's a massive deal this year. People in the south are talking about this. People nationally are talking about it in a different way than people in the south are talking about it, but everyone is talking about it and you should be. I don't think a

11:48team in the SEC is going to win 11 regular season games this year. And I think multiple teams are going to be in that nine and three range, which just leads to utter chaos in the playoff selection department. And I know that maybe in some corners of the south, there are still those holding out hope that strength of schedule slash strength of record will carry the day. And the playoff committee certainly will understand how difficult a nine game SEC schedule is. First off, you don't even have consensus agreement from America that it is that difficult, but I will meet you there because I do think it's pretty difficult to play in this league. The college football playoff committee doesn't necessarily think so. And I want to take you back quickly a few months because as we are setting the table here, we got to remember what's happened over the past few months earlier this spring. You remember Greg Sankey in the SEC, they met with the college football playoff committee. And afterwards, you thought they would emerge from that and you would hear a lot of talk about how

12:54well now the playoff committee is seeing eye to eye with us. And we are totally comfortable that the playoff committee understands the strength of schedule dynamic in the SEC. No, this is why it could be a train wreck for the SEC. This is Brett McMurphy from, I don't know, earlier this spring. Quote, the SEC's Greg Sankey on the confidence of the playoff selection committee recognizing SEC strength of schedule. I'm actually one who believes competitors want a great challenge. We have heard about strength of schedule, strength of record. We had what I would call, this is the important sentence here, this is Greg Sankey talking. We had what I would call an unsatisfactory conversation with the CFP staff at spring meetings. We have questions about them understanding the strength of the SEC. This is what has a lot of these people in the SEC wanting to expand the playoff because they thought that they were either going to get an expanded playoff, which meant it's okay to play nine league games. Or they thought the playoff was going to radically overhaul its process to account

13:54for strength of schedule as they see it. And they really haven't gotten either one of those. And this is one of like 19 problems on Greg Sankey's plate right now. It's a really big deal now. It'll be probably the talk of the sport come November. I actually think tier two of the big 10 is the most important story in the sport this year though. So if we were to look past Ohio State and Oregon and Indiana for the moment, let's just assume the fandall odds to win the big 10 are proper. And let's assume that the top of the big 10 to start the year really is in that order. Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana, in some order, let's assume that you're top three. To me, what could fundamentally alter this season is a collection of USC Michigan Penn State, Washington, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska. You see the second tier there. The second tier of the big 10 is one of the most important stories in the sport this year because if the second tier of the big 10 really

14:58has strengthened itself, then you have a conference, the balance of which is a lot more in line with what we've seen from the SEC for a while. And it makes it tougher. You may still have cream that rises at the end, but is it Ohio State 12 and 0? Is it Indiana 12 and 0? Is it Oregon 12 and 0? Or is it a 10 and 2 scarred battle tested team that made it through and they made it to Indy? So look at me, I'm 11 and 2. I'm the big 10 champ, but man, I had to fight to get through here. I had no idea Nebraska or Washington was going to deal us the punch they did. That's a very, very important thing in the sport this year. As for the ACC, as for the big 12, I would say by far, the popular theory is that those are one bid leagues this year. I'm not convinced that the ACC in the big 12 or one bid leagues, I do agree that they are distant thirds and forts in relation to the SEC in the big 10. Then again, why wouldn't they be? That's what happens when you gobble up a vast majority

16:02of the value properties in the sport. I don't have to like it, but it kind of is what it is. But with the ACC, here's how easy this would be. Let's say Miami were to run through this thing the whole year, but they go to Charlotte 12 and 0 ranked third in the country or maybe even they're 11 and 1. Maybe they lost a Notre Dame, but that's a non-conference game. They go to Charlotte. They're 11 and 1. They're still a top 16 and they just get upset by a Clemson or by a Louisville. Anything can happen in one day on one Saturday. Well, that probably makes the ACC a two-bid league. I would say even more so, that's the case in the big 12. Remember, Texas Tech and Brigham Young don't play each other regular season. They're the top two favorites to win this league and that gap has shrunk considerably post-Brendon Sorosby news. So if Texas Tech goes to Arlington and they lose 31, 26 to Brigham Young, Texas Tech probably enters that game ranked highly. They may not have a loss on their resume. They

17:06frankly shouldn't have a loss on their resume. That makes the big 12 a two-bid league. It's not even to mention the chaos that could happen underneath those teams. I'm just saying it's never as neat and tidy and clean as people make it out to be in these bracket projections in July and August. The hot seat perception this year versus the reality. I think there may be a little detachment. I think Mike Norvell at FSU. That one's pretty obvious. Lincoln Riley at USC. I know there's some disagreement out there. I will state for the record one more time. I do believe it is a playoff or bust year for him. I am not one to question where people would come up with the money. I used to. I am not asking that question anymore because I've already seen several examples just in the past 12 months of ungodly amounts of money that should not be readily available in this economy or any economy to pay ahead coach not to be your coach anymore but that universities have come up with it.

18:06So if they wanted to make a move there and they were eight and four and they miss out on the playoff, I don't think money is going to be the limiting factor. I really don't. So that may be irrelevant because some of us have USC going to the playoff at which point I would just refer to Lincoln Riley as we but we'll see. That's a little ways away. Luke Fickle at Wisconsin is where I have a little detachment from the working narrative out there. The working theory slash narrative is that yeah, man Wisconsin, Luke Fickle on borrowed time. I just think he's had terrible luck with his quarterback health situation. I think he hired poorly at the outset a few years ago. He's rectified that situation. They got the old dominion quarterback coming in this year. I think they're a sneaky kind of team in the big 10. They get an early test against Penn State. They get a really early test against Notre Dame which they'll probably lose and thus put more heat on Luke Fickle while throwing Wisconsin off the national radar for a little while which will be exactly where they need to be so that they can lick their wounds and then face teams. They have a better shot at beating. I think Wisconsin will

19:10be all right. So I think Luke Fickle will be all right. If I'm wrong and he does get the acts after this year, Jason Eck is probably your head coach but I'd go hire Luke Fickle in a heartbeat. Like if I'm if my job opened up and Luke Fickle was out there, Luke Fickle's a very, very good head coach who probably you know in my in in my way of looking at it turned down a dead end road and just drove a little too far and does not have enough gas to get back to the main road. Point being if he were to be able to get back to the main road, he'd be fine. I think Dave Aranda yet's pretty obvious at Baylor Shane Beamer. I want to give him more rope than maybe some South Carolina fans are willing to give him. But then again, they could also win eight games this year and just surprise everyone. So I'm not ready to go there with Beamer yet. But my fascination is what we call Penn State Watch around here. My fascination is not with these obvious guys because I'll tell you what was not obvious last year. What was not obvious as LSU entered the season top 10 and proceeded to

20:14win their season opener against Clemson. What wasn't obvious is Brian Kelly was a couple of months from being fired. What wasn't obvious as Penn State entered the season top five. Brandon Walker picked him to win the national title. Jesse, a lot of us had him go into the playoff. What wasn't obvious is James Franklin was going to be canned before Halloween. And I don't know if that's a byproduct of just a new age that we're in where since you can pay players, it greatly warps people's sense of expectation and sense of tolerance. But we're there and we're not going back. So I look at the top 10 right now. I look at the top 15 and I think it's a huge inflection season for these guys and last year taught me don't eliminate anything as a possibility. So I think Texas and Sarker are going to have a really good year. I think they're going to go to the playoff. I think they'll go deep in the playoff. I thought that about Penn State last year is my point. So there is a world.

21:15Maybe I'm not wrong. Maybe the coaches and players just screw it up at Texas. I would not be wrong in that case. They would have just messed my prediction up. But semantics aside, what if that happens there? What if eight and four happened at Texas or what if nine and three happened? Whatever, they missed the playoff. I just think there's the possibility for the conversation to really get thrown in a woodshipper really quickly and to really veer off onto a path that we've never gone down before. It with Texas at least we went down it last year with Penn State. Also remember what happened to Penn State last year. It wasn't just that Franklin got fired. The lead up to it was they lost an early game that had been built up for months and months, the Oregon game and the wheels completely came off. It was like they were so fragile that all it took was that and they hit that one bump in the road. It should have been a bump and instead it was a brick wall and they got beat by UCLA and they got beat by Northwestern. Is that on the table for any of these guys? Kaelin DeBoard, Alabama.

22:19I would never mention hot seat with DeBoard. I wouldn't mention hot seat with Sark. I wouldn't mention hot seat with Joey McGuire but these guys where a lot is expected. If the season were to somehow some way just go horribly wrong. It doesn't even have to be sub 500. Like in some of these cases, eight and four is horribly wrong. DeBoard swindied at Clemson. Same way. DeBoard probably a little bit more criticized right now than the other three but with DeBoard, he's also a legacy name. DeBoard and Sark and McGuire have combined to win zero titles. DeBoard has multiples. Clemson football and DeBoard swindied interchangeable. Yet I ask, what if they have a second consecutive season like they did last year? Quarterback situation still really up in the air there right now. We're going to see them in person in six days. How does that season start off? Also, I want to make this promise to you regarding the upcoming, oh, I don't know, like

23:21dueling landscape of the sport this year. Courts and lawyers in a perfect world are never visible and never talked about in college football. In a less than perfect world, maybe they're visible but it's only in the spring and summer and everyone has the good sense to shut up and enjoy the games in the fall. This will not be one of those years. When the Senate is back in session, you are going to have a bill that for the record, I still highly suspect will pass and I suspect that bill will pass the House of Representatives and become law this fall during the season. You will have lawyers making tons of noise this season. You will have courts making tons of noise this season. I want to remind you and remind myself they only get the attention you give them. You are going to have, unlike June, tons of opportunity to watch actual college football games and don't pay any attention to this nonsense if you don't want to because that will largely be the

24:26attitude on this show. So there are plenty of places out there and plenty of people doing really, really good high level coverage of this stuff and credit to them and more power to them. I don't know how they do it frankly. There will be plenty of places where you can consume that if you want to. I just want to tell you with very, very limited exception, like if a bomb goes off, that's the exception but with very limited exception, this won't be the place for that. It was barely the place for it in spring. It's not the place for it. Now, the entire name of our tour this year is the Don't Tread on Saturday tour and we named it that for a reason and it's a lot more than just a tour name, honestly. But the reason we name this year's tour The Don't Tread on Saturday tour is because it feels a whole lot like that's what a lot of people are trying to do. Either intentionally or unintentionally, a lot of what we, you and I love about this sport, it is really being tinkered with or attempted to be adjusted or in some cases just outright attacked and I don't

25:32like it. I know you guys don't like it because I hear from you every day and so it was very easy to name our tour The Don't Tread on Saturday tour but that's also the collective attitude around here. So much so that we named it our tour and side note, Jimmy John's has come on board to present that tour. We will be down in Baton Rouge this Friday and Saturday for the week one game, Climson at LSU. We're looking very much forward to that and happy to have Jimmy John's on board. I assume that most of you who have been around here for a while know that this just eventually means I'm going to get you free food. I'm working on it as we speak. I myself want free food. We already put a ton of Jimmy John's cups in the fridge over there. So we will be on campus Friday. We'll do our ESPN show, The Maiden Voyage and then Saturday. I'll be on the sideline Saturday night in Death Valley. Got some folks who have never experienced a game down there who will be in tow looking forward to it, have not been to a night game and Tiger Stadium in two years. And so the Don't Tread on Saturday tour

26:37kicks off ironically in the backyard of a place that is completely tangled up in all the legal goings on in the sport right now. But that's okay. That's okay. The Don't Tread on Saturday tour, by the way, will be weekly and we are very much looking forward to it. We got a ton of people watching live. Appreciate you guys. Make sure as you pour in, you like the video. Jesse tells me a K.A. Statson info Jesse with an i e on the end, hard above the i. Jesse tells me that every time I ask people to like the video, we get like 500 likes and I don't get how that's possible. But it doesn't matter if I get it or not. So please like the video. Is that it, Jesse? Okay, we move on. Week 0 is in the books. Some corners of the internet would lead you to believe, I don't watch week 0. I don't believe in week 0. These are of course lies. But I also have the common sense to know if I'm going to time up a countdown to the start of the season, I'm going to

27:41time it up to the point where most of the season starts for most of college football. While also acknowledging, I can't wait for week 0. Dude, I watched every snap of New Mexico state Florida state last night. So don't tell me about how much week 0 matters. But that's not where I want to start. I want to start in Ireland because for some reason we still play college football games 9,000 miles away from campus stadiums that sit dormant. But you know what? If the paycheck's worth it, the paycheck's worth it. Bill Bellachek is one and oh on the season. For a brief period of time yesterday, I could have put him as the lead candidate for ACC coach of the year. And then Tony Elliott had to go do what he did to the NC State moral net in a second. So North Carolina beats TCU 15 to 10. And I had a lot of people that were tagging me and I didn't respond but I saw it and you said say something nice about North Carolina. You need to say something nice about Bill Bellachek. Well, did you say anything nice? It's not like I've been trashin' this guy and

28:42trashin' the likelihood that North Carolina would be good and getting a ton of pushback. In fact, Jesse, I don't remember over the course of the last six months when I stated my opinion on the future of North Carolina. I don't know if we heard from any tar he'll fan that said no. And truthfully, even yesterday it was muted but it was a really good win. Don't ever apologize for winning a game and don't ever let anyone knock you for winning a game. There's no such thing as an ugly win in week one, especially. They were a little over touchdown underdog in this game and they won it. Defensive adjustments. That's one thing, man. I won't question Bellachek on inch or an ounce on football acumen, which I've made sure to state very plainly for the past several months. I thought more organizationally it had been a mess over there. But when you looked at the fact there were what 20 combined points scored in the first quarter of this game and then five. The rest of the thing in TCU was a goose egg after the first quarter. But he they clamped down

29:44and it was over. And so huge huge golf clap for North Carolina and that week one win. And you know there are a few weeks away from playing Clemson on the road. So we'll just keep that on the radar. 919 that is what I was talking to Fandool about yesterday because frankly Fandool Mike told me what the line on that game would be. And boy did I disagree. But you know what if you disagree enough you just go bet it. TCU was a mess man. Three turnovers on downs inside the North Carolina 35. I'd say that's a paper popper of a stat. They had 11 penalties, 100 yards, one of five on fourth down. But you know what my biggest takeaway is we got lied to about Jaden Craig because I got to be real. I did not go to Fort Worth and watch them practice. You could just pretend I worked for the star telegram. I did not go out there and watch them. So I had to go on good old fashioned word of mouth that Harvard transfer Jaden Craig was the real deal.

30:50And yesterday was real but not in that sense. And it was ugly. And now you also have the double body blow of getting beat. And now you're the team that lost the Ireland game. And this game has been notorious for wrecking the first halves of team's seasons. Which is why I have no idea like how many drugs you have to be on to agree to play in this thing. But people do. Pit and Wisconsin next year. People do North Carolina state. CJ Bailey North Carolina state took on Virginia yesterday. Kind of sort of 34 to eight. Total body bagging at the hands of UVA. Tony Elliott and the boys leaned on Bo Pribula known by no other pronunciation on this show. 15 carries 110 yards kind of what we expected when he played last year, but he was a little bit hurt. But that's not my biggest takeaway from this game. It is right now very easy to see Virginia

31:50making it all the way to the ACC championship game in Charlotte in December. But that's not my biggest takeaway in this game. 20 of 22 starters for Virginia are upper classmen. There are multiple guys on that offensive line that had to go pick up their kids after the game yesterday. But that's not my biggest takeaway from this game. In fact, I can't even give you my biggest takeaway by myself. That's why I had the staff wield this grand piano in here about 530 this afternoon because an extra special visitor has decided to grace us with her presence again once per Sunday this year. Her name is Sarah McLaughlin and the Sarah McLaughlin special of week zero North Carolina State. Outgained 413 to 168 and outrushed 258 to 76. Virginia possessed the ball an entire quarter

32:52longer than them and I know some of you are time of possession deniers. Try denying that final score there. There was a TVMA drive at one point in the third quarter as Mimal would call it that was 23 plays that included 18 runs. It lasted over 12 minutes and that was in the third quarter and there are already bodies everywhere and then you get to the end of the game and 34 to 8th the final and what do we do? Being the sadistic people that we are we pull up the Virginia drive chart. Hide the women and children for a second. Here we go. Punt. Punt. Interception. Punt. Punt. Fumble. Punt. Punt. Out of boredom there is a touchdown here. A turnover on downs. Punt. End of game. You're Sarah McLaughlin special for week one. The NC State Wolf Pack or what is left of them.

33:57It was sad. I know a lot of you bailed on that game. It was sad. We move on. The game of the day, the game of the night, well at least by my estimation. Then again I M G 6 Josh so I'm a little biased. Memphis and Charles Huff went and pulled one out against UNLV. I call it the perfect win. I think it was the perfect win for Memphis because it's cool when you go on the road and you blow someone out. I think you learn a lot more about yourself especially early in a season especially if it's your first year at the program and your first year with all these players by doing this right here. In this game, Memphis is trailing right towards the end of the third quarter and they take the lead and then they score the final 13 and it's very important to note that if you didn't watch this game defensive line kind of took over in the fourth quarter from Memphis. Memphis has got to, they've got a defensive front that would be the envy of a lot of P4 teams because they can spend to get it but it wasn't an out scheming type situation. It was just overpowerment. That's what kind

35:00of happened. They took over in the fourth quarter. I'm not, I am not comparing Memphis's personnel to what Miami had last year. I am saying there were times when Miami's guys did that late in games and you looked and you said, I mean all credit to Cory Heatherman, this doesn't have a whole lot to do with scheme at all. This is just, well this is just like what happens in the jungle. This is national geographic type stuff. This is tough to watch. There is nothing that that kid on that offensive line can do about it. That's kind of what it felt like. Watching Jackson Arnold get sacked four times in the fourth quarter. Memphis had half a dozen of them over the course of the game but Marcus Stokes dude what a story. Beat out Aaron Nolan for the quarterback job. It goes 15 of 26, 223 touchdown. No picks had 45 yards rushing and now as everyone sees who the winner of the game is because this is a huge game in the G6 ranks. Whoever the winner was you were going to start schedule gazing. Well Memphis won it and so you start schedule gazing a little bit and you don't

36:04have to gaze too far. I'll do respect to butch Jones and Arkansas State. You don't have to gaze too far to see what's happening September 12th. And what happens on September 12th is Charles Huff and the boys are going to Boise Idaho where I'm told it will still be very mild and there is a showdown and I don't think it's a stretch to save one of the games of the year in college football period when they go to face Boise State. We don't have to wait months and months for that one. Looking forward to that. Congrats to Charles Huff and the guys. USC beat San Jose State and then all the talk was about anything other than the game but I do want to say I know there are some swinging philosophies on how you should interpret that 23 spot that San Jose State put up in the fourth quarter. This game ended at 35 to three as far as I'm concerned. If I'm a USC Homer whatever notoriously those of us who grew up in rural Georgia were raised to love the Trojans so I'm probably a USC Homer. I don't really

37:06care what happened in the fourth quarter. Lincoln Riley needs to but it's more a depth it's more a depth thing and it's more them treating this like an NFL preseason game up to including the crowd in the stands. Then it is me the ringing in the alarm bells for USC so Trent Mosley was one of the many young guys that were looking at seven catches 118 Luke Waffle just looked the part like a lot of their true freshman looked the part. There were other guys that were held out of this game. Like I said they treated it kind of like an NFL preseason game and they're going to have a couple of more of them before Oregon comes to town but a lot of people watched this game apparently and then a lot more people just saw screenshots because several people screenshot the crowd or whatever crowd there was at the Coliseum yesterday. Now apparently Daniel from South Bend hit us and he said can you stop pumping up USC as a playoff after seeing that terrible crowd on Saturday. I appreciate the passion. I do.

38:16Casual people rarely say smart things. Smart people sometimes say casual things. Daniel if you're watching the show I'm going to assume you're a smart person but you have just said a casual thing here. I don't care if nobody's showed up. It's embarrassing. It's not the first time hot weather has ever plagued a late August college football game. So yeah it was a pathetic showing on the part of USC fans but I'm not betting on the fans to make the playoff. I'm betting on the team and as far as I could tell I don't really think the team's output here was affected all that much. Is this a bold take? I don't think it is Jesse and also I'll make you a bold prediction here. Oregon comes there in a few weeks. What do you want to bet stadiums full? What do you want to bet? And I don't think it'll be totally greened out either. What do you want to bet? September 26th a few more people show up. I don't care. Yes it was a bad look. Really bad look. There were like 13 million people who live out there. I saw on Twitter that's a bigger population

39:19than some entire states in the SEC. So I also understand like there's a different magnetism about college football on the west coast than there is in Athens, Georgia. You don't need to explain that to me. I understand that. Still a pretty bad look but it didn't matter they won the game. Florida State, New Mexico State for some reason. Probably because it was college football game had my entire attention last night. I watched every snap of this game. I really thought that Florida State would pull their spine out. I think they had every motivation to do it. I think they had every intention to do it. And if you watched this game like I did, what was most alarming is just how relatively evenly matched the teams looked for a lot of the night. The better team won here. Florida State is a superior team. I thought it would be in first quarter, 21 nothing. Go to half, 42, 3. I expected that because there won't be a lot of those opportunities

40:22this year for Florida State. And so I expected it. And it didn't happen. And I don't think it's because somebody was overlooking someone. I just don't think Florida State's team is that good. I don't think that offensive line is anything worth writing home about. Ashton Daniels, again, those who follow Florida State closely like you guys kind of understand how that happened. You can talk him up all you want to the coaching staff, not the fans, but he's a backup, backup, backup, backup, backup option relative to what you kind of wanted, but it didn't properly understand what it would take to get or probably did understand what it would take to get and didn't have what it took to get better quarterbacks. So haven't changed opinion, probably only four to five opinion that play in SMU and then in Tuscaloosa and then home for Virginia and then at Louisville at Miami and Clemson by Halloween is a recipe for disaster as we currently look at Florida State. That was week zero.

41:23I'm very happy it's the last week zero we'll ever have because you cannot speak common sense about week zero. You speak common sense about week zero and there is a 10% portion of the internet that is under some sort of psychosis and they really revolt against it, but it doesn't matter because next year everybody plays in week zero, which makes it week one. Paystatematerial.com right now is where you can go to purchase anything you want, but the design contest is well underway. We took the five finalists and I'm going to give you a quick update. That don't tread on Saturday. Sure, not one that we designed, one that you designed is running number one right now. This is according to the amount of purchases that have been made. That Paystatematerial dog shirt, we don't have dogs in the store yet and that's our first dog on a t-shirt. I suspect that thing's going to make a run, but I don't want to influence the purchasing. You should just buy all of them. My model is a girlfriend, even though some people

42:25have thrown claims of AI at it, Jesse, it's still running a tight third place and it's early. We still are running this thing through September 9th. So all these shirts are available in the Paystate store right now. Paystatematerial.com. You know what else is available? Whatever camera we're calling this over here, Bradley, the distant off in the sunset shot, we got a flag, Alex sent us a flag. So we've got one hanging in our studio. So if you're curious about why so many people are buying these don't tread on Saturday flags, it's caused they're awesome. I've got one above my head right now and we have sold roughly 14 trillion of those things. Why not 14 trillion in one? They're available right now. They look great in a dorm room. They look great in a tailgate. I think they look great over the fireplace in your living room, but I don't want to be an interior designer for you. Paystatematerial.com is where you can find pretty much everything. We got a ton of new stuff over there. There is a crazy week ahead of us. Crazy week ahead of us. Oh man, in general, but

43:26specifically here, Kenneth from Down in Polk City, Florida said, are you surprised LSU's willing to put a lot on the line just to get a few players on the field? Kenneth, yeah, I kind of am. There's a surreal piece of college football theater that is playing out and is set to play out throughout the week. So I want to catch you up to speed right quick because I know most of you have probably been getting bits and pieces of this. Like you know, Lane's trying something at LSU and it kind of has to do with players that were trying out for NFL teams and the SEC is really angry about it and there's been some court stuff. I probably just described 70% of the college football public's understanding of this thing. So really quickly to let you know what's about to happen this week, there was a Louisiana judge, okay, that granted several players, including some who were trying out for NFL teams, a granted them another year of eligibility through a temporary

44:28restraining order. And this is all tied to that NCAA rule where you got five years to play and then they said that doesn't apply to you guys. And these players were like, why not? We think it should and they filed a suit. So it kind of got us to this point where a Louisiana judge said, yep, I'm siding with the players, temporary restraining order issued. And then the SEC says, well wait a minute, that's just the court saying that the NCAA can enforce these rules, but we're the SEC. So we'll just enforce league rules on LSU and then Friday. So you and I haven't spoken since them. A Baton Rouge judge said, well, you know what, to circumvent all that, I'm lumping the SEC in with the NCAA. You're basically the same party. So none of you for the time being can enforce your own rules. And this also deals with players moving from one conference member to another. So you know, up until 30 seconds ago, it was against the rules for pros to come back and play in college. And then even within the NCAA within the subset of that, which is the SEC, it was illegal

45:34per conference rules anyway for you to be moving from one team to another in the conference. And so this is addressing all that. And the court has basically said, yeah, for the time being shut up. And then yesterday, the SEC put out a statement that said, we are going to comply with that. Now, a lot of people took that to be the SEC caved. Greg Sankey is caving. And it may end up that that's what's happening, but I don't interpret it that way quite yet because of this right before the show, the SEC kind of, I don't know if they released this, but it came out simultaneously from a lot of reporters. So I got it from Dellinger. And this is what it said, the order entered against the SEC and Commissioner Sankey is a temporary restraining order, not a final ruling on merit. The SEC and Commissioner Sankey are prepared to contest the allegations in the plaintiffs petition

46:34at Thursday mornings hearing and defend the SEC's rights as a voluntary association to fulfill its mission to its member institutions. In the meantime, the SEC and Commissioner Sankey will continue to comply with the court's order. So essentially what they're saying is, yeah, we're going to comply with it until we can be heard Thursday. And Thursday, what we're going to say is we're a league. And LSU is a voluntary member of that league. And if they don't like the rules that we're trying to enforce, they can leave. It shouldn't be they file a lawsuit and tell us how to run our business when they're a voluntary member of this to begin with. And then on the other side, they're saying, hey, you didn't collectively bargain any of this with anyone. So it's all illegal. Like your entire sand castle is sitting right here and it's high tide. And it should have been high tide a long time ago. Did you notice the date Thursday? Roasters are due Friday. So this is going to go down in a courtroom Thursday. LSU has to turn in their roster Friday because that's 24 hours before

47:38their first game of the season. And we have no idea what's going to happen yet. But the bottom line is there is a standoff kind of the first of its kind in my lifetime between a member institution and its own league. And this is a situation where these member institutions used to walk around having the fear of God in them, running a foul of the league office. And now LSU's like, now we're going to we're going to see this through. And by the way, for anyone think they're bluffing, they 100,000% intend to follow through on this because they already are. Matt Moscona, who covers LSU, put this out earlier today. It doesn't have to do with football, but it's the same thing. LSU has become the first school to test the limits of the court order granting extra eligibility soccer players, couple of soccer players entered Sundays match against Arizona in the first half. Both are named plaintiffs in the case against the NCAA, the SEC and Greg Sanky. So LSU athletics has already

48:43crossed the Rubicon here. Like they've already said, nope, we are fighting this. And we're going to play the players. So I got no doubt Lane Kiffin intends to take these guys on his roster. And if he feels like it intends to play them after an acclimation period and that goes into a whole different subset of conversation. But to answer the question, I am surprised. I'm just surprised. It's come to this. I guess nothing should surprise me anymore. But this is a really wild thing because if you think about it, it's not that these players themselves are fundamental game changers in the SEC title picture or the college football playoff picture this year. It's not that. That's not why I care, at least. Why I care is it's yet another pillar that used to exist, kind of holding up the mainframe of college football. And one of those pillars was we've got rules. And again, up until very recently,

49:45everyone was terrified to break them in CAA rules. But then even more so within the constraints and confines rather of a league. Dude, everybody kind of walks on their tippy toes and kind of tries to avoid the broken glass. And then LSU comes in. And in this climate says, yeah, screw it, whatever, we don't care. And I don't know what's going to happen. But my question is beyond this. What kind of unforeseen ripple effects are there? And you could go a million different ways with that. The whole Senate bill thing, when they reconvene in October, is there more of a need for it perceptionally now? I know there's a working theory out there that a lot of this is unintentionally intentional to try and push that thing over the finish line. Could be some merit to that. But aside from that, like how fractured does this make the relationship between LSU and the league office moving forward? And how much does that matter in 2026? It's going to be a wild, wild week. I'm not particularly

50:52interested in talking about it a lot, but it's going to be a wild week. They're watching us in Orlando, Florida, Ogden and Utah, Carter'sville, Georgia. Thank you guys so much. I do feel it's my responsibility. And it's my duty to let you know who the top 10 quarterbacks in college football are going to be this year. I did league rankings, but I do feel that I need to stack them nationally because if I'm going to be on the record for this year, I really need to be on the record for this year. And I want to go 10 to one here. This is what I expect. This is not lifetime resume, Wikipedia page, achievement type stuff. This is how I expect the season to unfold this year. I got Drew Mestemaker in this group, but I'm not telling you where yet. So the number one quarterback, well actually, Jesse, do we want to go 10 to one or one to 10? Yeah. I just had the paper turned around wrong. It's a teaser, but that's fine. Here we go. Number one quarterback in the country this year,

51:53based on production that I expect, is actually Darian Mensa at Miami. I've got him win in the Heisman trophy. So I think he's going to have the best year out of any of these guys. I love everything about this situation. I love him as a player. I love the system. He's in. I love his surroundings. I love that Miami could run the ball to win the game if they need to. They could play defense to win a game if they need to. So there's not going to be too much weight put on his shoulders. And yet he's fully capable of carrying them for any length of time if he needed to. So I think Mensa is going to have an incredible year. Trinidad Chamblis is right there. Trinidad Chamblis could easily be the best quarterback in the country this year. I think he's the most dangerous player in college football. So I'm splitting hairs really here. I guess the only questions if I have them is how deep is that wide receiver room or how dependable is it? And is there any kind of adjustment that you can make to him? Is there any kind of situation where we're watching Ole Miss in October and we're saying, wow, I mean, these SEC defensive coordinators, they got a little

52:57better read on this guy. Chances are no. Chances are Trinidad Chamblis has as dangerous as he was last year. And oh, by the way, don't forget that was his first full year starting at this level too. So he's allowed to get better too is my point. Trinidad Chamblis way up there. I got CJ Cart number three. So Notre Dame CJ Car would not surprise me at all if you go more towards the Mont Draft. Portion of the conversation to see him end up being the number one overall guy taken. He's the current Heisman odds favorite at FanDuel. Very, very professional in his approach. I think that he can be trusted to do a whole lot. I think I don't know if Notre Dame has like a sure fire wide receiver one. I think they've got a good enough room not to mention. I don't expect a whole lot of fall off at the tailback position, even though they lose two first rounders and love the offensive line. Love the program. Love the culture up there. I think it is his time to have a really big year.

53:58Julie and San and Ohio State. I'm a big believer in. We talked on this show in the spring about how there are some people inside the sport that question him, you know, sort of here. I'm not one of them. And for last year being his first year starting, I thought he did a lot of good things. It's time for him to do great things this year. He's probably got the best overall player in the sport regardless of position lining up just outside. They got other capable receivers there. They've got a couple of guys who can run the ball. Interesting to see what the offensive line situation there is, but again, this is a guy planted in a rock solid program culture. He's got the best surroundings. So I got Julian saying for I'll go Dante more five. I think he's going to have a big statistical year. Of that, I have very few questions. If they get a good enough offensive line product in front of him, he'll have a great statistical year. He could very well win the Heisman Trophy. Big question about Dante more and big question about Oregon is when they get in the big moments, specifically, like they're going to go on the road to Ohio State this year. Can they go on the road and beat them?

55:02And in that kind of moment, is that the kind of situation where if they need a drive late, Dante more can put it together. It's really all I care about at this point. I don't really frankly question whether he can move the ball against Oklahoma State. I don't question that. I question whether he can get the job done when Ohio State or Michigan puts the heat on him, when Indiana puts the heat on him. And if he can, he may be number one on this list overall. Number six, this is where I'm putting archmaning. Archmaning still has a lot to prove that Texas team still has a lot to prove. He's got all the firepower he should ever need so much so that Ryan Wingo is just kind of taking a backseat nationally, somehow in the conversation. Archmaning, to me, it's kind of led to this point with him. And from a physical maturation perspective, he's everything he needs to be. I just think if the skill sets there,

56:02and you're another year in to be in the starter at Texas, and you know what the expectation is, and you know the position you're in, you're going to have so many big stages to proven on. If you're a believer that that bowl game performance, and really the second half of last year, kind of unlocked what was to come this year. And I don't doubt that that's true. He's going to have a big year. It's like how big a year does he have? Josh Hoover, I put it seven. I almost blindly trust in Kurt Signetti. I blindly trust in their evaluation. When they went and got Mendoza last year, they were fully confident in that move. Maybe they didn't know he was going to be as good as he was, but it says a lot that when Mendoza got plugged into the Indiana way of doing things, he flourished. And I think Josh Hoover will flourish likewise, being plugged into the Indiana way of doing things. He'll have an incredible offensive line in front of him. And also, I don't know that people who follow the sport hard core would say that they're underrated at receiver, but I think the casual fan will not understand how good Indiana could be again at receiver.

57:08Becker's still there, but like bringing Nick Martian there. I don't think a lot of people nationally even appreciate how good Nick Martian can be because of where he was last year. So I put Hoover at seven. I'm going to roll with Jaden Mayava at eight. So I'm going to choose to believe that Jaden Mayava, a third year starter paired up with a guy who I implicitly trust to develop quarterbacks and then call plays for him and Lincoln Riley and put him in a good position to succeed. I'm going to trust that dynamic works. I'm going to trust that they're good enough at receiver. And I'm also going to trust that they're in a good enough position to where they don't have to ask him to do something above and beyond what it's responsible to ask him to do. And with their schedule this year, there will be several big moments. You just you to kind of wonder. Oregon comes in there when you play Washington when you go to Penn State when you got Ohio State at Indiana. They're going to be big pressure situations. Can he cut down on how turnover prone? They've been in some big moments under him. I'm going to put John Matier at nine, maybe a little controversial,

58:10but I got John Matier all the way up at number three in the SEC. And this is in terms of expected production this year. I think Matier is going to have a big year. Number one, because I think some of the pre post injury stuff last year is a little overblown, but also, man, I am trusting they can run the ball better this year. If they can't forget about this, because he'll be in an unwinnable, maybe an untenable position to pop in the top 10. But if they can run the ball better, this is a local home team that plays really good defense. It's a local home team that is very good front line at wide receiver. So if they can stay healthy there, I trust them enough. But I just think he's a supremely talented player. And I think they're not afraid at all to use him situationally in the run game. Just a playmaker. And some people say he plays hero ball. I just think he may play ball heroically. So just semantics there. Andrew Mustamaker, as mentioned about

59:10five or 10 minutes ago, I think Mestamaker is going to put up really big numbers at Oklahoma State. And I think they start maybe a lot faster than the general public expects. Because once upon a time when a coach took a new job, it was a startover from scratch situation. And that's not the way that it works these days, nor will it work that way for Eric Morris in Stillwater. Mestamaker put up 4,300 yards last year. They bring a good chunk of that roster with them. Good tail back talent there. I think you'll put up big numbers. I know there are some people in the draft community that question how legitimate he is as like a future prospect, which is good because it gives him a lot to prove wrong this year. So that's how I'd stack the top 10. Gunner Stockton was just outside. Jesse reminded me on the grease board in there because we actually used it today. Gunner just missed out. Who else did we have just on the outside? I wasn't going to put Keel and Russell on the top 10. I can't. I price underwood. I have much higher expectations for him this year.

1:00:16Lenora sellers. Yeah, Lenora sellers could easily be in there. I just, if I'm talking about expected production, putting Lenora sellers at Oregon would make him a slam dunk top five. But this is not, this is not like future draft projection stuff. It's just expected production this year. So I couldn't quite do it. Marcel Reed, same thing. Couldn't quite put him in there. I'll tell you what I can put, at least in the fridge over here, and the one in the kitchen, which I use for real, is Factor. This has been a blessing for us, partnering with Factor. Because oftentimes we used to just order food and we would get it at the office and I'd eat way too early. And then, well, I'm hungry and it's 5.30 and I don't want to eat anymore. But now we can because we got a fridge full of Factor, which is kind of the perfect balance because I know a lot of you work all kinds of different jobs. So like you ask yourself, can I eat healthy and also live the life the way I live? And you think if

1:01:17you live life the way you currently live, oh, it's just got to be fast food all the time. I got no time to cook something. Well, if you got two minutes, then you got time to cook a Factor meal. And this is not a, you know, microwavable stuff from the 1970s. This stuff is extremely good. In fact, the other day, I was trying out some of the salmon and I told Jesse, I mean, Factor may do seafood better than the actual Pacific Ocean does. This stuff is really, really good. And I've had three different meals. I don't want to claim favorites until I go through all of them. You got shredded pork, which I haven't had yet. The salmon burgers I also haven't had yet. So I'm working my way through them. But they're ready in two minutes. No prep, no cleanup. So schedule can be totally out of control. And you could get this done, including eating and throwing everything away in like 10 minutes. So eat real. You had to factor meals.com slash paid 50 off. That's P A T E 5 0 off. Use that code to get 50% off and one free breakfast item. Bradley loves breakfast. Free breakfast item per box for

1:02:22one year. While supplies last that runs through Halloween this year, that's code paid 50 off at Factor meals.com paid 5 0 off at Factor meals.com. You can see the website for more details. I have been making what I hope are good predictions. I hope they've been good takes. I hope. I asked you guys recently, give me some of the popular takes out there that you see everybody repeating that you think will just completely with this year. And you guys brought it. So I'm going to react to some of these. Craig said one of the popular takes out there that will crash and burn is the take that it's just Oregon's turn to bring a national title to the Big 10. This is a popular one. This is one for the crowd that wants the Big 10 to continue the run. And the funny thing about the Big 10's run of three consecutive is it's been three unique teams. It's Michigan. It's Ohio State. It's Indiana. And so everybody's like, Hey, man, wouldn't it be cool if it was a fourth year,

1:03:24fourth unique team? Well, that's got to be Oregon, right? Yeah. And Craig said, no, no. And who knows? I can't put words in Craig's mouth. But maybe Craig also means a Big 10 team wins it this year. And it's not Oregon. And if I can put even more words in Craig's mouth, irresponsible though. And maybe Craig's just saying Dan Landings, not a big game coach. Maybe he's saying Oregon's not a big game program. Maybe Craig is not a believer in have not does not equal cannot. Maybe he just flat out thinks they cannot. Craig wouldn't be alone judging by our inbox. He wouldn't be alone. I wonder if Oregon can do it this year. That's what we're going to play the season for, obviously. But I think I think America split on this, honestly. Next up, Mike said, Alabama isn't Alabama anymore. That's one of those popular takes that Mike says is trash. He doesn't believe in it. Well, Hey, Alabama is not Alabama anymore. If by that, we mean the 10 year ago,

1:04:30scorched earth, Nick Saban, Alabama. I guess the good news is nobody is that anymore. So you don't need to be that. And I don't think Nick Saban was even the old Alabama in the final couple of years of his tenure. And nor would it be Alabama of old if Saban came back. So that's impossible. As for Alabama being a team that can compete for a national championship, well, I guess that's why we call this year an inflection point. I happen to believe they're going to have a pretty good team this year. Now what they will be is very young. So could it be one of those situations where it shows a heck of a lot of promise this year. And maybe, you know, they're better than what the eight and four crowd expects. But maybe they still leave you say, and boy, that team was pretty good. But next year, it could be they may just not be good. That could be the case. Or it could be kind of what I expect, which is I think they'll be a pretty good team. I think

1:05:32they can compete for the SEC championship. I've got them winning 10 games. So I am a little detached from the crowd on this. But it's contention on a few things. Run game being a lot better. Kind of the same thing we're saying about OU, same thing we're saying about LSU. Keelan Russell's just he's got to be a really good player. Now I've gone down there and watched him practice a couple of times. So I've seen him and I know how special that looks. But it's got to translate into a game. They really fortified their defensive front. But it's got to stay healthy and it's got to perform in games. But I do think, and if you pulled the public, they probably lean more towards this than they do what I'm thinking for sure. I see the live chat right now. Just a mid table team. Jesse, that's all they are. It's a mid table team. It'd be a shame if I took bold predictions from the staff later. And one of them sounded just as treacherous against their home state team as the chat does. Let's move on. Bryce Underwood. The Bryce Underwood failure mode. So this is a popular

1:06:33take out there that Bryce Underwood will fail this year. And chill, legal name there is saying, nope, not true. He's not going to fail. You know what? I don't think he is either. I don't think he is at all. I think Bryce Underwood is going to have a pretty good year this year. I think it will be a very improved player. I could even paint a scenario where Michigan is in it at the end. I could do that. I could sell you on that wide receiver room being way better than your usual Michigan wide receiver room. But also the identity of that team being fortified by a very physical run game. And Bryce Underwood contributing to that. And I could sell you that that's going to be a hard enough nose team to compete in and win any game they play. And Bryce Underwood is going to be a reason why instead of it happening in spite of him. I could sell you on these things because I've sold myself on it. So I have been quietly, very quietly purchasing Michigan stock very quietly.

1:07:35I'm not ready to be irresponsible about it. I didn't put him in the playoff. But I'm not saying I'd be shocked if they were in it. That's where I am with Michigan right now. So I agree with this. And the last one, it's the big 12 point. Jared said one of the takes out there is just dead wrong is the tears of the big 12 is Texas Tech and the Utah schools and then everybody else. You're saying that's not true. Now here's what I don't know Jared. Are you saying that maybe the Utah schools shouldn't be there and it's just Texas Tech? Because what it sounds more like is it sounds more like you think Houston may be in play here or Kansas State. Do I even mention TCU? They're on the graphic. Maybe the Arizona schools, maybe one of them, Oklahoma State, shocks the world, West Virginia does indeed have 3000 yard rushers this year. You know what? Nothing would surprise me about this league this year. And it may be that we watch Texas Tech start the season and Will Hammond and the boys look incredible and we realize, oh,

1:08:36it's just Texas Tech and then the rest of them again this year. It could be that straightforward. They play Houston at home on a Friday night in week three. It could be that straightforward. I tend to believe it's going to be a little more difficult than that. But I do think if it's if it is a contender other than in Texas Tech, I do think it'd be Brigham Young. But if not them and Utah, Houston's just sitting there. They're just sitting there. You know, you can go watch any of these games you want to and I just purchased some tickets last night for another non sporting event and use the promo code so I can vouch that it works. You guys are in the season right now where you're getting ready to buy tickets. I know a lot of you are going to games. Some of you are fortunate enough to be seasoned ticket holders and to those of you who congrats to the rest of us who didn't grow up with season tickets in our families. We got to buy tickets a different way. So if you're going to do it, I'm getting a little discount code here. Everyone asks about it even though it's in like every show now. So

1:09:41Seat Geek is where you need to go. Get your tickets purchased right there before check out. Look at the promo code box and enter Pate 10 PAT10. This could be for a concert, but it could probably be for college football or even NFL games. If you guys so choose got major league baseball playoffs coming up. Whatever you're trying to get to purchase them at Seat Geek and I'll get you 10% off. Pate 10 at checkout. That's up to $200. Any order above $200 and I'm just going to get you 10% off the order or $20 off the order. It's the best I can do. This is a very important part of the show. We do this once per year. I'm trying to see. Yeah, I got my chap stick. Hold on, Jesse. We don't want chap lips for orientation. That's the last thing we want. It's already 808, huh? Okay. Once per year, I don't want this in the cut, Bradley. Once per year, I realize we've added like

1:10:46100,000 more subscribers. Once per year, that means we've got a lot of inside jokes and inside terms and all kinds of weird things we do on the show that make a lot of sense to our normal viewers and listeners, but make no sense to the rest of you. Periodically, I'll have someone ask me, hey, why do you say immunity after stuff? Hey, what are you only wearing a white T-shirt for? What is Friday night lines? For that matter, what does a rama noodle express? Well, I'm here tonight to offer orientation to anyone and everyone. For those of you who need to invite friends to listen to this show, this is the video they need to listen to. For those of you who are new around here and just too scared to ask what all this means, this is the video you need to listen to. I'm going to tell you everything you need to know about this show, about this brand, about everything we do. It is Josh Payne's College football show. I am Josh Payne. We do this show Sunday night, Tuesday night, Thursday night live on YouTube at 80 Eastern 7 Central. You can also download the show anytime you want. On podcast, Mitch gets it up like an hour after we do it live. We created this show

1:11:52because we wanted to create the show we wanted to watch. For a long time, I've spoken at length about this. I didn't think the college football show that I wanted to consume existed. This is like 10 years ago. National media just ignored college football aside from doing the games. And when they did talk about college football, it was people that you didn't really care to hear talking college football because they didn't really know what they were talking about. So there's this massive void. And fortunately, podcasting in YouTube and digital media, it has given an opportunity for people to build shows that fans are actually interested in because we are fans. So we did that a long time ago. And then we took it to CBS. And then I took it back from CBS. And we own 100% of it now. We did the opposite of selling out. We actually took far less money in exchange for owning our IP. So we own this channel. We own the podcast feed. We own the name of the show. We own everything. That's why we get to call it Josh Payton's College football show. And I know there's a lot of inside stuff to

1:12:52explain. A lot of terminology that may not make sense to you. Don't worry. I'm about to explain it all. But the first thing you need to know above and beyond anything else about this show is this is a 100% college football show. And we're not apologetic about it. We love this sport. We think it is the greatest sport on the face of the earth. If you believe similarly, this is probably the show for you. We heavily value the regular season of college football. We think fall Saturdays are the greatest part of American society. And even though I kind of joke about it sometimes, we're not joking at all with how serious we take this stuff. And maybe some people out there make fun of folks like us for how serious we take it. That's fine. That's fine. They may make fun of you when you really do turn down an RSVP to a fall wedding because it's on a Saturday. And you know you only get 12 of them per year. And some people shame you and chastise you. Not around here. We don't they got the rest of the year to invite you to stuff. Folks got the rest of the year to ask you

1:13:55to do stuff on a Saturday. But you're not taking these 12 or 13 or 14. So if you feel that way, you got a home here. If you take it seriously, if you occasionally get worked up about this stuff, no one here shame in you. In fact, we relate with that because that's how we feel about it. It's not the absolute most important thing in our lives. But right after faith and family, that's about where we peg college football. That's about where we put it on the shelf. So if that's what it means to you, you got a home here. Each week, I wanted to quickly run down what the schedule is because a lot of people ask, Hey, where can I find this? When do you do it? So Sunday night and Tuesday night, we do the show. The show you're watching, you're listening to right now 80s, turn seven central live. You can watch replays anytime you want to. Wednesdays in the fall. I had a few miles up the road over to the bus and with the boys studio. And I sit down with Will Compton and Taylor LeWon. And we do a show called the locker room. You can find that on our YouTube channel every Wednesday evening or their YouTube

1:14:58channel every Wednesday evening. Thursday, we have another show here. And then Friday, this year is new. We have entered into a really, really fun deal with the SPM, where myself and Will and Taylor will be on a different campus. We're going to start at LSU this year. We will be live on those camp I plural of campus, more on that in a second. And we will be live from two Eastern to three Eastern every Friday afternoon. Just hanging out before college football Saturday. That's essentially the format of the show. Saturdays, we're at a game. We're at a game every Saturday. My dream growing up was to just be on the field for the biggest college football games in the country. And so now I've grown up and we're in a position where we just get to do that. So much so that we created an entire tour. And this year's tour following in the footsteps of the Renaissance tour and the any given Saturday tour and the every given Saturday tour and the once upon a Saturday tour.

1:15:59And the fall don't lie tour is the don't tread on Saturday tour. And that's all we do. We just go to college football games because we are allowed to do it for a living every Saturday. And then we'll come back here and we'll do it all again and talk about it on Sunday. I do want to put this on your radar. There will be a few more live shows. Those Friday night theater type live shows, you know, like the one we did in Atlanta and things sold out and we had to turn people away and we didn't know how big a deal it would be. So we're going to do a few more of those during the season. Just be heads up. Not every town's getting a live show because that would be a little bit too much logistically. But just be heads up for that. Friday night lines. I want to talk to you about what Friday night lines is. But first, I want to explain the model. The model here is a real thing. The model is a predictive model for us that spits out a projection on every football game that's going to be played every week. We put out our own number on every game. And then based on the value

1:17:02that I think is in those numbers, we have our best bets. It's not a unique concept, but what we call our best bets is the Ramanoodle Express. We call it the Ramanoodle Express because a long time ago when I was doing talk radio in Columbus, a guy called him, he asked us for best bets. We gave him the best bets. They won. And then the guy called in and thanked us for the winning bets and said, boy, you guys really don't understand. I was up against it. My children were probably just going to have to eat ramen this week if those bets had lost. We laughed. He then informed us he was not joking. Don't know that we ever heard from him again. For the record, I do not advise this kind of behavior whatsoever. So please, please bet responsibly or do not bet at all. But we call our best bets the Ramanoodle Express. Now I give those on the show throughout the week. But once per week on Friday night, far away from the lights, far away from the cameras, far away from the studio, I'll be in a college town somewhere and I'll be in a poorly lit hotel room somewhere. And it'll

1:18:05just be me and my phone and I go live on Instagram probably at half time of one of the games on Friday night. I always let you know what time. And we do what it's called Friday night lines. And that is where for about 20 or 30 minutes, I just talk with you guys. I look at the live chat. We'll have a few thousand people in there and I'll have the model pulled up and you can throw any game you want to at me. I'll let you know what the model thinks. We have a store, PayStateMaterial.com. We've got a ton of great items in there. This flag above my head right now is in there. There are tons of new shirts in there. We've put several new ones in there just over the past month. PayStateMaterial.com. If you want one of those, I also want to tell you we don't spend money on marketing. Our marketing budget is zero dollars. Our audience does it all. The connectivity between this show and its audience is unlike anything that you'll find in this space, the college football space or the

1:19:07digital media space. It's really incredible. It is that way because we kind of built the show together. We allow all of this to happen. You guys allow all of this to happen. I seek your input on everything. So it's very much a crowdsourced show. And we created a name for it even. We invented our own fictitious university called PayState to describe kind of what we have, what we do. You'll hear that term a lot. That's kind of what it means. Okay. Some other things that are attached to this show. We have power ratings that are pumped out by the model every week. And I release them. And since there's already a poll out there called the AP poll, I just use my initials and I call our power ratings the JP poll. And this drives people insane. Partly calls they didn't think of the name. But also because I don't treat that as a rankings, I treated as power ratings. And power ratings, as you'll find out, are very different than rankings. Rankings are kind of just stacking teams

1:20:12based on what you've seen them do. And power ratings are teams stacked in order of neutral field favorability, regardless of what their record is. This will be the source of 60% of the consternation on this show this year. And if you're new around here, just sit tight, you'll see. Last year, it was so bad that I invented the commissioners poll, which is my actual rankings. And we put those out later in the week. And even when I started putting my rankings out, there was still mass confusion and fighting on the internet, not my problem. The Sermogloclin special happens on our show once per week. It already happened on this very show tonight. And that is reserved for the most heinous, brutal, ugly performance imaginable, usually the Saturday before we do it Sunday night. And we have not thus far gotten Sermogloclin to license her actual music to us. So we just use sad piano music that sounds close enough to it. And

1:21:17it's one of the premier events on our Sunday shows. We have Chalai of supremacy that we hand out to our audience at my choice when you guys do something that promotes the show publicly. The genesis of that was when we first started the show, our audience took it upon themselves to promote the show. And I never asked them to. And so a few of you started going to college game day and started holding up signs, promoting the show to the point where we got banned on college game day. All these years later, we're working right next to them, which is kind of crazy now that I think about it. But I said, man, we got to do something for those people. So we just created a chalice of supremacy. There's two of them right there. Can't see them because they're glass. And we started sending them to people. You can't buy them. They're not for sale. We've just got them here and we send them out when I see fit. And then one night I called them Chalai of supremacy

1:22:19because I needed a plural form. And it's my belief that you can just throw an accent at I on the end of almost any word and make it plural like status to stad I, chalice to chalai, purpose to perpy. You get the deal. This also drives people crazy. And that is why we do it more and more and more. Producer Jesse is the producer of the show director Bradley's directing in their press street name Tyler. He is currently looking at a laptop screen where he's probably generating graphics and social videos, matches in there somewhere, but his head is blocked by a monitor. That's the staff here. We don't have a very big staff, but we do have a very good staff. And they have largely been with us from the beginning. In fact, everybody, I want to make sure, yeah, everybody who's associated with the show now was once upon a time associated with the show when we were at CBS. And as soon as I could, I brought all the good ones over here with us. And so

1:23:22we produced the show ourselves. We own it. It's done out of Nashville, Tennessee. So, inside terminology on the show, a splattering is just a blowout game. You've got to be very careful when you call a game a splattering. Because you got to wait until the games out of reach, because what you don't want is a premature splattering. None of us want that. And so I have not suffered a premature splattering. Every game I have called a splattering has actually been a blowout. Immunity is a term that I will drop on the show sometimes. And it's kind of a very, very, very immature game that I played with buddies for a long time. The office was very big back in the day, still is. And they said, that's what she said, a lot on the show. And so your buddies would hit you with it. That's what she said anytime they could. And so we created immunity, which was a tool to block. That's what she said. But you got to drop immunity very quick. If this doesn't make sense to you, forget about this part. You don't really need to know. A paper pop is something that I do on the show like that a few times per show during the

1:24:26season when there is a stat or a point that needs a little extra emphasis behind it. We have padlock stats on the show. You'll hear them a lot on Sunday. It's a stat that I think perfectly explains something that's happened. Like if you get outrushed 468 to 89, that's probably a padlock stat. But there are also bad lock stats. And the bad lock stat is the kind of stat that if you saw it, but you didn't know the final score would trick you into thinking the wrong team won the game. So you've got to be aware of the bad lock stat. There will be a lot of rumors of bias that are aimed at me throughout the year. I will be accused of being both a homer and a hater of pretty much every team. I don't even address it much anymore. Mainly we have fun with it. Look, I've made no bones about this. I think I'm qualified to be the commissioner of college football. And more and more so, I think people are seeing that we need an actual commissioner in

1:25:26this sport. I don't shy away from it. When people suggest it, I embrace it because I'm probably more qualified than the people who claim, and this is a very, very loose term, claim to be leading the sport right now. We do the paid state speaker series during the spring. It's just where in every head coach wants to come on the show. So we go to them, we sit down and have them on the show. The Twister poster is over my shoulder because it was one of my favorite movies of all time. And it was very formative. It was part of what led me to become a storm chaser. One of my biggest hobbies outside of college football is storm chasing. We do it every spring. We got a few tornadoes this spring, including an EF3 tornado in Effingham, Illinois. Prezes first tornado. He was right there in the back seat for it. Mimaw is not fictitious. Mimaw was my real life grandmother. We lost her 21 years ago, but Mimaw imparted several tidbits of wisdom before she left us. And despite the Brandon Walker's of the world who denied Mimaw's existence and denied

1:26:28her wisdom, she was very real. And her wisdom is very real. Might I stretch it from time to time to make a point? That doesn't sound like me, but if I am, then I am. If I do, then I do. Here is, there's just a lot that goes into the show. We have fun with it, but the bottom line is, even if there's some inside stuff you don't get. Man, we love college football, and we do it year round. We don't even believe in the word off season to the point where we whisper it on the show. It's profanity on this show. So we don't believe in it. If the show weren't live, I would have pressed, bleep it out in post-production, but we're live. So that's pretty much what you need to know about the show. We move on. We are exclusively powered, at least from Nod's perspective by Fandall. I got some bullet predictions coming up in a second that are going to need this, but I was checking the discord because I told you guys, I'll give 25 bucks in bonus bets to four of you, but you got to show me your bet slips.

1:27:29You got to let me know your best futures bets. So Ryan just taken Washington to win the big 10 at plus 2700. I admire the courage, Ryan. So I'm going to give him $25 in bonus bets. I can't even see the name, but I can see the bet. Alabama over eight and a half wins. I've actually bet this. I cannot give myself 25 in bonus bets because that's unethical, but I can give this guy, slash girl, $25 in bonus bets. So we'll send 25 there way. Penn State to make the big 10 championship game. That's getting 25 in bonus bets. That's a plus 500 proposition right now. And lastly, Bryce Underwood Heisman ticket there. Can't say I've gone as far as to bet it, but I will say I respect it. I admire the courage. It wouldn't be the absolute biggest shock in the history of the world. And I'm given $25 in bonus bets there. Fandall the exclusive odds provider of the show.

1:28:30Tons of markets there right now. Go check it out. Must be 21 plus in present in select states for Kansas. An affiliation with Kansas, Starkisino or 18 plus and present in DC. First on my real money wager only $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non with robber bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandool.com. Gambling problem call 1-800 gambler or visit fandool.com slash rg. Call 1-888-789777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit nd gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling help line ma.org or call 800-32750 for 24 seven support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8 hope ny or text hope ny in New York. Let's wrap with this. Bold prediction seasons coming to an end because the season has started and so I went to the staff earlier today and I said staff. One last ride here. I want your boldest predictions.

1:29:31One of a new tradition we're starting around here and some of the most irresponsible propaganda I've ever seen in my life was shot back at me. So here we go. The staff is not allowed to own a chalice unless they earn it. First up this is preses attempt. Three teams with purple as either a primary or secondary color will make the playoff. Headlined of course by James Madison University and Billy Napier. Okay. So J.M.U. has got to be one of the teams press. Yeah. Okay. So we need two more purples. Well, LSU's got purple, Washington. Those are the number nine and number 21 teams in the Fandall odds to make the playoff by the way. Clemson has a secondary purple color. We did confirm Kansas State mentioned J.M.U. Here's the problem. Press I'm getting into the 30s in the odds board right now, which is not a problem for you. You need this to rate 9.5 or bolder. This is a 9.75.

1:30:31So press who currently has six boxes of chalice in his apartment is actually finally qualified to win one. Next up Bradley who once upon a time predicted Vandy to beat Alabama before they lost 59 to nothing is going back to the anti-Bama well. He said Auburn wins the iron bull causing Alabama to go eight and four on the season. Kalen DeBorgon. We don't know if that means fired. We don't know if that means he takes a new job. We don't know if that means he retires and quits and just goes to live in a cave somewhere. So Auburn's going to win the iron bull. That falls to Bama at eight and four and DeBorg has to be gone. Those three things happening at the same time, I will put a 9.75 on because Auburn could win the iron bull and it only drops Bama to nine and three. That could happen. They could win the iron bull drop in Bama to eight and four and DeBorg says, oh well,

1:31:32we'll get him next year and he just stays. Don't get fired. So I'm going to put a 9.75 on this one. It qualifies. Next up, let's see what Mitch had. This was a disaster earlier today. Half the 2026 college football playoff field is teams with live mascots. I got to tell you spent way too much time on this today. It was a drain on production resources. At one point, the entire staff was in a room asking if the Notre Dame leprechaun counts. Also Penn State is Nittany Lion, which I didn't know was a fictitious animal because I just assumed if lions exist, then what's Nittany in front of it? Also they don't actually have a real lion roaming the sidelines up there. So then we had to get clarification on that. The Oregon duck, it's an animal, but yet there's no just live duck. Which would be kind of a weird vibe now that I think about it on the sideline. But there is a mascot that's a human in a duck outfit, but then press said, nope, that's

1:32:36not what I'm talking about. I didn't know that the Houston Cougars had a real Cougar, but they keep it at the Houston Zoo. So anyway, we go down this road and then finally out of anger, I just gave it a 9.75. So half of the playoff field is made up of live mascots. Georgia, Texas, LSU, Texas Tech does qualify here. A&M's got Reveley. Oklahoma has a bunch of ponies that pull the Schooner, the Schooner. Yeah, there we go. So they count, USC counts, not because of the Trojan soldier or as Mitch put it the homey on the horse, but rather because of the horse itself. We got Smokey at Tennessee. We got the pony, the Mustang out there at SMU. Auburn has real life eagles on the sideline. Half a dozen of these teams have to make the playoff, Mitch. And you got Ohio State and Michigan and Oregon and Indiana and Bama and Notre Dame in your way and Ole Miss and Miami and Clemson.

1:33:39Kind of a shame Miami doesn't always have a hurricane on standby. Sit off shore, don't let tear anything up. So I'm going to put a 9.75 on that. And then lastly, Jesse, spelled his name wrong, sexually J-E-S-S-I-E with a heart over the eye typo there, but he did make a prediction and it is Penn State, Florida and Houston, all win 10 games or more in the regular season. Two of them make the conference title game. One of them wins their conference title. So firstly, they got to win 10 games. Penn State over under win total 9.5, Florida 7.5, Houston 8.5. So you got to get a couple of overs there. Two of them have to make the conference title game. You got to figure Penn State's one of them because they have that inside track with the schedule. Florida would be tough, but who knows they could get on that 7.0 roll we talked about. And then Houston, it could be as easy as Houston, Beaton, Texas, Tekken, Week 3 and then

1:34:40kind of be in a game and a half ahead of Texas, Tekken. And at that point, they don't even need to beat Texas, Tekken to rematch. They just need to get there. Jesse, this is a 9.75. Toe congratulations. All four of you qualify for a chalice of supremacy. We got a great season on top. We got a great week on tap. We got predictions Tuesday night. Like we're in it now. We're in the full swing of things. So it's time to go put any kind of last chores that you have, any kind of commitments you have, you got to get that stuff done this week. You got to get it done. And by this week, I mean Thursday or Friday. Don't let stuff creep up on you. Don't lose friendships over this. But then again, maybe if they're trying to rope you into Saturday commitments, what kind of friend is that? I don't know. I don't know if you guys have that more this week. Appreciate you guys so much. Make sure you like this video and subscribe to the channel. That's it and that's all. We'll see you Tuesday for Director Bradley, producer Jesse.

1:35:43I'm Josh Payne. You're going to be a great year. Appreciate you guys. God bless. It must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas, Starkicino or 18 plus and present in DC. First on my real money wager only $5 first deposit required bonus issued as non withdrawal bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt, restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandool.com gambling problem call 1-800 gambler or visit fandool.com slash rg call 1-888-789777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit ND gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-32750 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-8778 hope ny or text hope ny in New York.