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John discusses the Cincinnati Bearcats merits in the college football playoff, and how those giving rankings should make some changes.
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Are you a fanatic? Then you're in the right place. Welcome to the fanatic life podcast. Here are your hosts, John Gunter, and Jamie Tipton. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the fanatic life podcast, John Gunter here with you today. We'll get Jamie back soon enough. Before we get into our today's show, I do want to mention that I am sorry that this podcast is just now airing. I did try to release a an episode as I told you, I would right before my vacation. And I did so during a thunderstorm, which is wonderful, by the way. And so as I was talking about the subject, all of a sudden, it sounded like a lightning bolt hit the house next to us and scared me to death. And I actually have audio that listen to this. { Interference} Apple TV. Smart TV, you don't have to have a hardware isn't that crazy? I'm thankful. That's all I said in the moment, because it did scare me. But anyway. And then as you probably heard in that clip, for whatever reason, I had some interference. And So had I had it not lightning and thunder so loud, I still would have been able to use the audio because of whatever interference we had on that. So audio was no good. So either way, it just wasn't going to work out that day. And again, sorry for for having this in so late. We are in the midst of bowl season today. Before we get into that, remember to check us out on Facebook facebook.com/fanaticLifepodcast. So we are talking bowl games. I am in the midst of my Saturday watching right now though Ohio State Utah game. But what I really want to talk about today is kind of college football overall, specifically the top 25. And also the semi finals that we just had yesterday. So we had two games, we had the first game Alabama, Cincinnati, Alabama dominated that held Cincinnati to six points. And also Georgia, over Michigan also another other domination It was It wasn't that close that 34 to 11. On that, that score. And so as we as we look at these games, these are the National Games, these are the games we look forward to one of the few where people aren't sitting out that I know have waiting for the NFL, they're actually important games. And so as a watch those yesterday and again, both both SEC teams dominated. And I know if you're a non SEC person, that's not a whole lot of fun for you. And all cards on the table. I am I am from Arkansas. I'm also a graduate of the University of Arkansas. And so there's, there's my bias, as we talk about this today, and I don't I don't mind you knowing that. But as we looked at those games, you initially, I think think about did these teams belong? Did they belong in the in the top four with Georgia and Alabama? because I think at the end of the day, I don't think there's anyone else you could have put in those games against Georgia or Alabama, where we wouldn't get this same outcome. Again, Georgia versus Alabama, January 10. For the national championship game, a replay of the SEC championship game, and the narrative's gonna be well, Georgia was number one in the SEC. They didn't have a whole lot to play for So was it that or was Alabama just better? From what I've seen all year with Georgia, I think it was the first I think Georgia didn't really have anything to play for they they couldn't lose out of the top four. I don't think they could because of how dominant they've been all year. That that's the an Alabama is actually you know, they've been kind of up and down all year, winning some close games where you would think a dominant team like the one that showed up in SEC championship game would would really take care of take care of business and everything. So we're gonna find out soon enough, who's going to win this national championship game. But back to the their opponents in these in these championship or in the semi final games. So you had a Michigan Wolverines team who I would say yes, I would say yes, they do belong. They did belong in this game. Now the problem is the talent gap. What you saw in this game is really a talent gap between You know, Michigan, who is talented, has a talented roster, but a Georgia team who was just that much better. They have gotten better recruits. They've developed them better. I don't combination of both, I'm sure. And you just saw just a a waxing. I mean, it was never in doubt that neither of these games were. But that's what you saw. It's just a here, here's the best we have in the big 10. Well, okay, well, here's the number three team, so would be number two in the SEC. And we just get demolished by them, we get demolished by the Georgia Bulldogs. And so I don't know of anyone else that I would have put in the head of Michigan. And so I would say that Michigan belonged because of who they've played, the season they've they've had and everything. And, and I'm trying to think I've been looking up the strength of schedule on a lot of these teams. I'm trying to think of what Michigan Michigan wasn't bad. Yeah, Michigan was was a strength of schedule. There. They were 18th. And so that's not bad. And so there's no one else I would have slipped in ahead of Michigan, that I can think of Oklahoma, of course. Top 41 strength of schedule, they barely won a lot of games this year. They were not that great. And really what we're what we're going to talk about more than anything is Cincinnati and Alabama. Does or did Cincinnati belong in that game with Alabama? I say absolutely not. And I'll explain why. Cincinnati got in because they were, I believe the only undefeated team in college football. Now, there's a reason for that. And that is their strength of schedule was 92nd, that's nine-two if you're keeping up at home. And so they slip in because of again, focusing on the stat of wins and losses. Now Mark Twain made famous the saying whether he came up with it or not, I think he credited someone else. But he says, lies, I'll keep this clean, dang lies, and statistics, with the point being that you can kind of make statistics, say whatever you want them to say. So for Cincinnati, you can focus and say, Hey, we're the only undefeated team. Well, obviously, that doesn't matter. Because he because you're undefeated, because your your strength of schedule was so terrible. And then when you actually play someone strong, like an Alabama, you get completely dominated. And I think that's what we see. And I think that's a problem in college football. Because for whatever reason, we allow these teams to kind of slip in, teams who don't play hard schedules, teams who don't even play in the power five. This year, you saw Louisiana, not LSU, Louisiana slip into the top 25. You also saw UT San Antonio. Yeah, they were in the top 25 as well. Did they belong there? Absolutely not. They were undefeated. And so we glance at things and say, well, they must be good. Well, of course, they're not good. Not not good enough to be in the top 25 teams in college football. But that's kind of how we do that. Sometimes we focus on one stat that that really shouldn't hold as much weight, as sometimes it does, because what will do? What a team like Cincinnati will do is they will say, All right, look at our record, we need to be in this game. Well, they got blown out. But I promise you what some are saying today is they've gone back through Alabama's schedule and looked at. Alright, well, who else did Alabama beat by you know, the same spread? How many people did Alabama beat by 21 points? And they're comparing them? Well, you can't do that in sports. We all know that. But But I guarantee you that's what they're doing. And so instead of looking at only wins and losses, now they're looking at SCORE differential. Well, let's go to the SEC. Again. I'm I'm an Arkansas fan. And so that's that's where my bias lies. But we could do that for every every game in the SEC. Because that's what that's what outsiders do is say, well look at all these SEC teams who are six and six, seven and five, eight and four, maybe even nine and three, they're not that great. You know, they don't have undefeated teams. Or maybe you just have one undefeated team there. The rest of these aren't very good. Well, that's the difference here is the quality of play. And so you can't just look at wins and losses and think well, everybody else is not very good. Because what I would share with anyone not in sec country is the difficulty is A.) getting to those wins. But also just the perseverance to get through this kind of schedule. It kind of gets me when outsiders will say well, they don't play hard enough. conference. Yeah, because the conference is so difficult, much more difficult than anything you're playing. That that there's no reason to, there's no reason to go outside. Unless you're an Alabama or possibly Georgia, simply because their strength of schedule can't be as strong. Because they don't play themselves. They don't play, they don't have the big bully to play against. Whereas Arkansas this year, my team played both Alabama and Georgia in conference. So can you imagine a Cincinnati team who plays both Alabama and Georgia getting out of that unscathed and able to play in this semi final game? Absolutely not. It just wouldn't happen. And you saw that there on on Friday evening, or Friday afternoon. And so that's the problem. That's the problem we see. And, and the issue is again, not that you you come out of this unscathed and undefeated as if that would be the thing to hold up and, and to celebrate, hey, that's great. You beat everybody in front of you, but who was it? You know, in the SEC, you don't get to just get up for one game and then kind of rush through the rest of the schedule. Cincinnati this year, beat Navy by seven and Tulsa by eight. That's embarrassing. And that is rough for you to say, hey, we're in the top four. We should be in the top four. That's embarrassing. But again, if you want to overlook the the scores, you know for that and just focus on the schedule, focus on the schedule, then that's what you do. It's kind of like a smokescreen, watch the hand watch the hand while I do something over here. And so that's what we see there. And Cincinnati's best win of the year is a Notre Dame team, who also ranked right now in the top 10 Who has no signature win. So the only team ranked quote unquote, this year that Notre Dame is played was Cincinnati and they lost at home. Well, Notre Dame just played their bowl game today. And well, they played their second ranked team of the year and lost again, so Cincinnati's win that they hold up as their defining win of the year is against a team and Notre Dame who has the 58th strength of schedule. And both ranked teams they've played this year, including Cincinnati, they've lost. So, does Cincinnati belong? Absolutely not. And that's why, because week in and week out, you just don't have the same test. It's not fair to the other conferences who actually go out and play tougher schedules. Now, again, some of these conferences are much weaker than others, even though they're called The Power Five. SEC has been dominant for a long time. And it's not just a homer thing to say. I mean, you've seen it play out, you've seen you've seen Alabama hoist this trophy, and it goes beyond Alabama, you've seen Auburn LSU. You've seen Georgia up there who got beat by Alabama A few years ago. And, and Florida has been been good as well. And so you've had a kind of a slew of, of SEC teams that have actually won the thing much less than have been up there and very competitive in very high bowl games. And so to compare a a non power five team with the 92nd schedule to someone in the SEC. I don't care what your rank is. That is that is a tough comparison. And I'm sitting here today. At this point, we are past the Arkansas game. And Arkansas won their bowl game against Penn State. And of course, with everything being like it is both teams had some key players out. But there is no way that I would be worried about playing Cincinnati today. Even without our best player, our best offensive and well two of our best defensive players as well. No way I'd be afraid of them as an eight & four team. I would if if our Auburn still have their their quarterback and their whole team together, I would put them up against a six and six Auburn team and have no qualms about they can Auburn to win. And that's why we can't just focus on the schedule. We've got to look a little deeper than that. So Cincinnati again define their season by undefeated record and a win against Notre Dame. Who themselves had no real win lost to both ranked teams they played against had no defining win and the top 25 that I'm aware of at least nobody that finished in the top 25. And so what you end up with is a bunch of high ranked teams who kind of count on each other though they both played terrible strengths of schedule, their schedules have just been weak. And to me that really lessens College football. Now don't get me wrong, Cincinnati could have won. This is sports. It's It's why you play the game as we, as we say. We see that in March Madness, especially when the little guy can win. Every once in a while something goes right for one game. Does it mean the best team won? No, you probably all, if you played sports at all, you've probably all lost to a team that you should never have lost to. The better team did not win. And so it's not as if I'm saying that Cincinnati never could have beaten Alabama. And though maybe that's true. In sports, you always have a chance. But the question is, do they belong in the first place? Did they take someone else's place? Who really deserved it more? And I say yes, they did not belong. They took someone else's place. And I think the problem with what we saw again, with Cincinnati with Notre Dame who's shown you every time they've gotten in the college playoff football playoff, they've been, I think blown out and they have not done very well. They just don't belong. Again, their strength of schedule is terrible. And then all of a sudden, because of the record they get in because they're Notre Dame and then well, SEC hands on hands them a whippin'. And so I think the problem goes even further back than them. It's happened for a long time. You think about well, let's just start with this year, Louisiana, UT San Antonio, both in the top 25. Both ridiculous. And again, UT San Antonio has has some coaches there that are from Arkansas, I've got a reason to root for them. But they are not a top 25 team, they do not belong near the top 25. If you go in years past, you're talking about a UCF who were undefeated, what did you beat? Oh, nobody. Okay. You know, and even deeper than that, you know, what was your weekend and week out? What did that look like? Why did you have to persevere through anything? Did you have a, you know, a down week against Tulsa where you, you know, one by eight. Whereas if you would have been playing a conference in conference like the SEC, that might have meant that you lost by 28 That day when you had that down day instead of playing Tulsa. And so that's really the question. Like a UCF. I think back to the early 2000s. Boise State, before they won the Oklahoma, the Oklahoma game is so kind of pivotal in our minds. Now. Boise State played Arkansas early in the season and absolutely got trashed. It was not a close game. That's the only strong team they played against that year. So by the end of the year, they had one loss, because they hadn't played anybody else. And that one loss was against Arkansas, where they got absolutely roasted. Well, they ended up in the top 25 ahead of Arkansas, because of their schedule. Well, that doesn't make sense. Are we trying to rank the best teams, or are we just trying to, hey, who's got the best record? Because those are two different things a lot of times, and I know it wouldn't be, you know, it might be frowned upon in the rest of college football if you had some six and six SEC teams in the top 25. But I'll be quite frank, I think that's the case a lot of well, if not every year, that there may be an SEC six and six team that belongs ahead of a lot of people with much better records, because they're a better team. Because again, you're playing better competition. Nobody else is having to go up against all that you're having to go up against. And so to me, that's, that's a problem. When you allow the records to kind of set who gets in as if, as if we're all playing the same competition. Because it's almost like we see we see somebody like that, like a UT San Antonio, let's just pick on them for just a minute. Does anyone actually think they were one of the top 25 teams this year? They probably don't belong in the top 50 teams. I know that's harsh. But I mean, that's just that's just the case, when you play no one, and you beat them. That shouldn't tell us a whole lot other than you're better than all those other terrible teams you played against. And so if we're just going to pick on those teams and say, Oh, they've got good records. Well, that's a much different conversation than saying, hey, here are the top 25 best college football teams, which is what we're saying that we're saying. But I don't think we're actually saying that. And so the deal is, and I think the problem comes because you get a team up there like oh, let's again, let's pick on UT San Antonio. Somebody beats them. Oh, well, you beat a top 25 team. No you didn't No, you beat someone that we put in there just because they had a good record. They're not actually one of the top 25 teams. Now back to Cincinnati for just a minute. Do they be even belong? The top 10? Hah, I don't know. You know, I might put them in the top 15. Just just because I don't want I'm in a kind of, I don't know, I don't know, you know they do. They do beat Notre Dame, which again, tells you not much. And then they beat a whole bunch of nobody, and barely beat a couple of them that they should have should have absolutely, absolutely whipped. So I don't know, I don't know where they belong. This is not a science. And that's I think that's part of the problem is it requires a lot of work and in sports being sports, you could play Alabama, Cincinnati game over and over. And you may have drastically different results each time now I think Alabama would win each time, you know, other than some kind of Fluke deal where everything went against them, which of course happens in sports. But, you know, I think that's the difficulty is we can't just say, Hey, look at that record, or hey, look at that strength of schedule, you've kind of got to factor in everything, and which is difficult to do. I probably I probably would have Cincinnati, in the top 20. Now were in the top 20? I don't know, I'd have to dive into that more. But But really, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be scared of them for anything, really with a lot of SEC teams. I just don't think they would. Maybe it is a competitive game. But again, that's what the SEC is, is weekend week out competitive games. And so that's what the rest of us have to go through is difficult after difficult after difficult game. And so that's why I think we've got to change some things there. And again, I think the the problem, we're not going to solve it here on this podcast today. The problem is, it's a difficult thing to do. But what I think we have to do is stop ranking these teams who are absolutely not in the top 25. Like, again this year, Louisiana, UT San Antonio, it's just not it's just not right. It's not accurate. And so if we will stop that maybe we will give a little more credence to that top 25 list. Who belongs there? Who doesn't? And see who they actually play out. I've got to think you know back to was the BCS BCS? Yeah, was it BCS? Where, you know, we used to have the computer ranking and all that, and it was always kind of weird. Trying to figure all that out. I do think you have to have strength of schedule in there, again, difficult to determine all of that. And I'm even when I tell you a stat here from ESPN, I say that understanding this could be off, you know, this is this is our best, our best idea of what of what the strength of schedule is. And so I allow for, hey, they could be wrong. Well, when Cincinnati comes in at 92? How, how much wrong could they be to, you know, to make it make that make a difference? You just haven't proven yourself all year. So one thing I think we've seen throughout this bowl season is, at least for me, maybe that's not true for you. But it seems like the bowls are less important. More and more kids are transferring out because of the transfer rules. You can you can go to another, another school very easily. Now. A lot of a lot of it's becoming more popular, I think to sit out your bowl game if you're going to the NFL. And I understand that I have I actually have no problem with a kid sitting out a bowl game, because he stands to make millions of dollars. Arkansas has a wide receiver doing just that. And I have no qualms about that. I don't think he's a traitor or a quitter or anything like that. He's taking care of him and his family over one game. And and I'm all for that I hope he does really well and is able to make make that money. But because of these new rules of transfer, because of so many people sitting out, I think the bowl games are becoming less and less important. Less and less, maybe exciting. Now for us this year. We hadn't been to a bowl game in a long time last year COVID knocked us out when we were going to play one. Two years before the two years before that we had an awful, awful team coached by Chad Morris who is now coaching high school football in Allen Texas. And so it's probably more important for Arkansas. But for a lot of teams, I think it's less and less important. So to me, I think we need to expand the playoffs. I think we need to make it eight teams. Now what do we do with that? Do we have set aside hey, here's a non power five spot. I don't know. You could make the case and I'd be I wouldn't I wouldn't be against it because I I love college football. It's really my favorite. That's the one thing I will watch. Even over NFL and I really love the NFL fantasy football and all that good stuff. But college football for me kind of, I guess reigns supreme in that. And so I would I would watch it either way. But you know, if you expand a team's then then you add in a couple of games there where you're getting to see some other teams, I think it probably lessens the feeling of exclusivity to you know, this year. You got two SEC teams in there. Oh, sec bias. Oh, yeah. By the way, they they whipped the other two teams? Oh, yeah, they are pretty good. So I think if you expand that out, that you will still, you know, you will still have the problem is you're still going to let in more SEC teams, if you're honest with with who should be up there. But if we could expand that out, I think that would add at least a couple of games where you have you feel like it's a little more important. You feel like you need to watch this, the players may stick around for those games, because you ultimately have a chance at, you know, the national championship game. And so I think that would add some excitement at the end of the year that maybe we're missing right now. But I would really like to see. And so, one, I think if we could get that straightened up with the top 25. Let's be serious about it, not just looking at record. Again, UT UT, San Antonio, Louisiana. Come on, give me a break. You can't you can't look at those two programs and say, yeah, they legitimately are one of the top 25 best teams. That's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. So if we can get that cleaned up, if we can add those other games, I you know, I've heard people say, well, they'll those will be boring, too. I don't know, you add in some teams that feel like they have a shot. And I think that adds something to it. Now, you know, you add in more teams, and you increase the likelihood of, again, like a March Madness, I think you know that this team that shouldn't have won actually came up and won. Now they might get blasted the next week, but you know, they had a chance they got in there. And again, more must watch TV. And so I think that would be a good solution. Now, how you figure this all out? I don't know. I think again, it starts with whoever putting together the the AP top 25 And all the coaches poll and all that good stuff, who, if I'm a coach, there's no way I'm putting in a whole lot of homework to the top 25. As if you know, that has anything to do with my job I'm getting paid for and could get fired, because I'm not doing a good job. And so you have all these stories about who's actually filling those out, you know, just just kind of ridiculous, we're kind of hanging on to the thought that oh, these are coaches and they know, they really know who's who's doing well, no, they don't, they do not care about your school, you know, they care about their own, and who they're playing now. And you know, the rest of their schedule, that's it. They don't, they don't care about the rest of this. And so they're not sitting in, you know, the film room, Sunday afternoon, you know, go into their top 25 list, that's not happening. And so we've got to somehow figure this out, kind of tried to lessen the whole, let's get this darling in here. Because of the record, though they haven't played anyone. If we could do that, if we could add in the four, change it from four at the top four to top eight. I think that's a fantastic product for college football to kind of put out there. You have more, more eyes on televisions, more people caring, I think less kids sitting out which I think again, is really changed the every bowl game as far as I've seen other than those top those top two games that we saw yesterday. Because you know, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you win the whatever bowl and you might get a trophy but you know the the chance that you might hurt yourself and take yourself out of you know, a positioning in the draft. That's a big deal. But if you add in that import of an extra game, I think that would help a lot. Now about about transferring in general, I mentioned you can it's kind of changed the whole bowl. A lot of bowl games. I'm thinking of an example Auburn played Houston this year and maybe maybe somebody's holding up a Houston win this year. Something like better Houston Houston's proud that they beat Auburn. Oh, Auburn didn't have the same team that they have now. Are they it's a completely different team, their their starting quarterback is now at Oregon. He didn't play in this game. Auburn was on a five game losing streak at the end of the year, in the year, I believe, four or five games. And so that completely changes, you know, the teams that played on the field. And so I really hope that we can add something in there that kind of gets us back to how important these bowl games used to be. I still watch them. Penn State and Arkansas today, Arkansas won. Penn State had a top wide receiver out. They had five defensive starters out. I believe they still didn't score but I think 10 points. So does the defense help with that? Probably, probably some.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai