00:00It's 12 teams, right, that expanded college football playoff where it's not as devastating if you lose.
00:04Because the topics that I'm talking about were, let's just go back to the early 2000s.
00:08Like, if you are the Texas Longhorns and you're ranked number one, and I'm just going to scroll down to, let's just say, Texas Tech at 24.
00:16Well, Texas Tech is 0-0, so is Texas, but there's a big discrepancy.
00:20Both of these teams, let's just say Texas loses in the first two weeks, they drop down to, like, nine.
00:25Whereas Texas Tech might be 7-0 after seven weeks, and be like, wait a second.
00:29We're 10th in the country.
00:30Texas has a loss.
00:31How'd they get back up to number two?
00:33And that used to be a major factor in who makes the national championship game back in the day, even in the BCS era.
00:38But now, you have a team like Texas Tech, who, again, I'm just using because they're ranked 24th, go, all right, we'll let things play out.
00:43All we have to do is really get into the top 12 at this point.
00:45One or two losses will probably hang out there.
00:47It's no big deal.
00:48But where you used to start was a monster factor on where you used to finish.
00:52But let's understand this.
00:53The coaches' polls are always going to come out on year to year because they're fun to talk about.
00:56But we have a couple discrepancies here, Joe, in that top three.
00:59Texas is number one, 28 first-place votes.
01:02Ohio State is number two, 20 first-place votes.
01:05Penn State is number three, 14 first-place votes.
01:08So we have a pretty tight and compact one through three, Joe, with Texas, Ohio State, and Penn State.
01:13So I ask you this.
01:14Do you agree that Texas should be number one?
01:16And also, where Ohio State and Penn State factor into this?
01:19Well, the part of the process with the old BCS, too, Donnie, was there was a big issue with the fact that, all right, listen, I know I'm going to be top three, top four, top five, right, in the poll.
01:34Okay, my out-of-conference schedule to start the year, I'm playing, you know, I'm playing Marist, I'm playing Rutgers, but, you know, I'm scheduling cupcakes because I want absolutely nothing to do with being upset early, right?
01:52Now, all of a sudden, it's changed.
01:53Look at the games we're getting in week zero.
01:56Look at what we're going to get the first couple of weeks of the season.
01:58All of those teams that you just mentioned in the top three, two of those are going to play each other here during the season, Donnie, or they're going to play other teams in the division that are also somewhere listed in the top 25.
02:13So, the scheduling alone has really worked into the favor of, hey, even if you are second or third to start the season, number two, number three, you're going to have plenty of opportunities for other teams to devour those guys in front of you if you lose or behind you.
02:30You have multiple outs in order to be able to keep yourself within a top 10 and a shot at a playoff, no matter what happens in the first couple of weeks of the season.
02:40Yeah, you take a look also at the top of the standings, at least in the odds market.
02:45Texas at a 6-1 price to win a national championship.
02:47Georgia plus 650.
02:48Ohio State plus 650.
02:50Penn State 7-1.
02:51There's Alabama from the SEC at 11-1.
02:53Same thing with Clemson and Oregon and a little bit of a drop-off there to Notre Dame.
02:57If you say, Joe, I'm going to give you one free play on this season for you to pick a national championship winner, who is that team you're picking to win the national championship?
03:06Well, it's kind of hard.
03:08I mean, everyone loves Texas.
03:09Everyone loves Ohio State.
03:11I mean, it's like, wow, going down the list here.
03:15But I would say until somebody beats them, Ohio State has still got to be considered the team to beat.
03:23Even at their lowest point last year, they got an issue in the quarterback room at Ohio State because, quite honestly, here we go.
03:29We have no idea who the quarterback is.
03:31A lot of changes at Ohio State.
03:33But I'm a big believer here that until somebody takes this team down before they play Michigan, by the way, because Michigan seems to have no problem beating them lately, I think Ohio State should still be the odds-on favorite to win it all.
