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Just go to indeed.com/bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast, that's indeed.com/bluewire, terms and conditions applied. Need to hire? You need Indeed. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place every game every Sunday, and you can even watch up to four different games at once with Multi-View, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical, and also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com/bsdevice and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket for Out of Market Games excludes digital-only games. What's good, Abi Nation? Welcome to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast. I'm Vince. That's Brian. We got a fun one for you today, everybody. Yesterday, we broke down our Notre Dame-specific predictions. We did our superlatives, most outstanding, most valuable, best linemen, all that fun stuff. If you missed yesterday, make sure you check that out either on YouTube or on the podcast. We're going national, Brian, we're going national. We are first going to discuss, again, kind of a recap of our- And some changes. That's what I'm going to say. We got kind of a recap of our conference predictions, but then also some changes. Things have happened over the last month, month and a half, since we started doing our conference breakdowns and our conference predictions and things like that. We went back to the drawing board a little bit. We picked our top teams in each conference, and then we put them into the play-off, and we seeded the play-off, and we threw it through the whole thing all the way to a champion. This was fun. This was a lot of fun to kind of sit down and just kind of throw some stuff up against the wall, see what stuck, kind of a deal. I think I put a little more thought into it than that. Well, I mean, I'm not saying thought wasn't put into it, but there's also gut feeling stuff to it, there's some analytic feeling to it, there's all these different things, and at the end of the day, neither one of us will be correct. It's all said and done, I'm sure, with reality, but I don't like how you're framing this whole thing, Vince. Throwing stuff against the wall, we're probably going to be wrong. Speak for yourself, man. Hey. It's not projecting onto me. Fair enough. Everything I just said over the last 30 seconds applies to the guy in the green. That would be me, but I'm excited about this because I think we'll get to the actual match-ups in the seeding and all of that in the second segment, so I'll save that diatribe for that. So first, we are going to jump into the conferences, Brian, and we're going to talk about we're going to go in alphabetical order, so you know, no allegiance to one conference or another, and we're going to kind of give our thoughts on that conference. So first up, just like who we think are the title contenders. Like we're not going to rehash the deep dive, we're just going to spend a few minutes on each conference just looking at who we think the contenders are, and of course, the contenders are teams that are then going to be playoff contenders. Yeah. 100% looking at it that way, so because I'll be honest with you, Vince, I have had some adjustments to my thoughts. Some of it's because of some injuries that have happened kind of, the other part is just re-looking through the schedule. Some of them are a little easier than I thought. Some of them are a little bit harder than I thought. You know, there are some teams that I think maybe could be a little better than I thought. Some teams maybe not as good as I thought. I think I originally had two teams from the big 10 in the Coachball playoff. Now I have more than two. So it's going to be interesting, very, very interesting to see kind of how this all goes. But it was fun. And that's what this is meant to be, right? Yes. Correct. This is meant to be fun. And if you're jumping in our chat and throwing harsh words because you are too emotionally unstable to handle a college football discussion, that's on you. But this is meant to be fun. Now we're giving you honest assessments and honest evaluations. Some Texas A&M fans said we're delusional for thinking that Notre Dame might actually be Texas A&M. Delusional. Realist. Well, again, it's projection, but you know, this is meant to be fun and there's going to be some fan bases that are happy with us and some that aren't. There's going to be some that are happy with us at first and then quickly turn on us. There's some that are going to be mad at us at first and then be like, Oh, okay, I see here. You went with that one. But at the end of the day, Vince, this is this was fun to put together. And you know, and then looking at, okay, what's it going to look like at the end of the season? What are we going to get right? What are we going to get wrong? In 2019, I had LSU in the College of All playoff. Not a lot of people did. They ended up going that year and winning the title last year. I had Washington as a playoff team. I think I had Washington in my national title game. They did that. Now I was wrong about Michigan, but I was right about them. I was right about Texas. You know, what are we? We're going to be right on some things. We're going to be wrong on some things. And it's going to be fun to kind of watch how this season plays out to see what we are right about and what we're wrong about. As we go, we would love to hear from you guys. So again, the beginning is going to be looking at the conference title contenders here from you guys. And then we'll get into the playoff stuff and we'll give our 12 teams. And then we'll do some seating stuff. We'll do and then we'll predict first round winners. It's going to be a blast. And then at the end, we're going to do a mail bag. So make sure you get those mail bag questions in now. Put an MB on there. If you get if you put a super chat in, like my guy Anthony Solomon did that he's thank you for super chat, Anthony says, thanks for the show. I'm very interested in how your playoff picks and look and play out me too. Right, brings first Vince, as you said, conference champs. 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Ditch the busy work, use indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day, indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences so the more you use indeed, the better it gets. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/bluewire. Just go to indeed.com/bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com/bluewire terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need indeed. Right, so let's jump into this thing. We're going to go on alphabetical order. The Atlantic Coast Conference is first up because A is for Apple and that's the beginning of the alphabet. So, we are jumping into the ACC. I love the thoroughness that goes into your thought process. You're welcome. You don't want to get inside here. There is a lot of cobwebs and craziness. But no, we are going to talk about our ACC and I wrote down kind of the top four teams for each conference and so I've got those four teams written down and I think that if we're talking about teams in contention for the playoff, it pretty much goes for deep depending on which conference you're talking about. I don't think any other, I don't think any conference is going to go more than four into the playoff. I would be surprised if that was the case. I personally not to give too much away, I only have three as the max going from any conference. And so, talking about the ACC, my top four in no particular order that I have in here that will be contending for the championship is I've got Louisville, Miami, Clemson and Florida State. So those are the four that I have competing for the top slot in the ACC or the top two to get to the championship and then of course, to play for the championship and then obviously the winner gets that by. So let's say you on the ACC and kind of where you're at and what teams we're going to talk about here. Really to me, there's only three teams that are worth really talking about as far as ACC title contenders. Louisville would be my next one. But to me, it really comes down to Clemson, Florida State and Miami. And two of them are proven established contenders. I mean, look, Clemson and Florida State, one of those two teams is one, what, every ACC title for the last 10 years outside of there was one year pit won it, right? I, you know, and then like, I think, yeah, I think pit won it. So, you know, it's going to be interesting. The two teams we know about are Clemson and Florida State, obviously, Florida State's coming off of a 13 to no season there, the defending ACC champs, right. Clemson won it the year before, beat North Carolina the year before. They've won it a lot of years prior to that, you know, they've won two national titles in the last 10 years, have played for the national twice in the last 10 years on top of the two wins. So they've won two loss too. I've also had several playoff births. They're still a very, very good football team. And I know they had a down year last year, but they have a lot coming back and I love how they ended the season last year. So, you know, when I look at Clemson, I think they're, they're, they should always be considered an ACC title contender. Now, what national title contender, different conversation will get into that, but it's certainly an ACC title contender. Florida State's reloading through the players they've developed, but then on through the portal, they're just kind of reloading again through the portal. Mike Norvell is one of the few coaches to me that's shown. He knows how to build a good culture with portal players, you know, so they're particular about who they bring in and then when I look at Miami, that's the team that has the most to prove Vince to me. But they're here's thing, Miami honestly has no business being in this conversation based on what we know about this team and what they've shown in the past. But you cannot look at what they did this offseason in the portal and what they've done the last two years through high school recruiting and ignore the town of that roster. You just can't. The only reason they're in this conversation is because they're loaded talent wise on both sides of the ball. And here's the point, along the trenches, they're just they didn't just go out and get a bunch of skill players like they got Cam Ward and Damon Martinez and this transfer and that transfer receiver and excuse me, they're loaded in the trenches as well, or at least they should be. And with the old line, most of it's built through high school players, highly ranked high school players, which is a recipe you and I always say that we like sure. If Cam Ward can keep his head on straight and show that he cares about more than just Cam Ward, Miami could end up being dangerous and their schedule is very favorable. So those three to me Louisville to me again, there's a gap there. Somebody asked about NC State, I'm just not sold on NC State. They haven't been a legit title contender for years. Yeah. You know, Grayson McCall's not the answer to them. Just, you know, people thought Brennan Vernon was going to be that answer last year. McCall's not that answer this year. NC State's a good football team, no doubt, but they're just not a title contender to me. It's really those big three to me. Right. Now I'm with you on that one. To me, there's even a gap between one and two down to three and, you know, whoever you have at three, I have Louisville three, Miami four because I don't have a whole lot of faith. The Cam Ward is going to be able to do what you just said he's going to be able to do, even though they have talent on that team and on all of those different things, I just, I'm going to have to see it to believe it with Miami and the way that they put their roster together and just kind of the way they've been going about business. I just, not a huge fan and maybe Mario Christoball is the answer, but we haven't seen it yet. And I don't know if we're going to. And I don't, the weapon for hire that they got at quarterback, I just think he's in it for himself, not the team. And that doesn't work in college football. Yeah. Sorry. It just doesn't. It's not. It's, it's a specific Cam Ward thing. Right. Like, I, we just talked about Florida State. They have a portal quarterback who's a one year guy, Notre Dame has a name to this guy. You know, I mean, you look at our playoff predictions, Vince and there are several teams that I have that are, have portal quarterbacks, you know, guys that are going to be portal quarterbacks, I'm, let me look at it now, just see mine are one, two, three, four, I have four teams in the playoff of portal quarterback. First year, first year at the team, portal quarterbacks. My issue is more about him. It's about Cam Ward. So that's really where I'm at with the ACC events. I just, there's a lot of you got to show me there. Yep. And here's like NC State's another team. They've never been a real contender, but they don't have the roster that Miami's put together. Correct. In the last two years through the portal and high school recruiting that can't be ignored. What they've added the last two years from high school recruiting cannot be ignored. It's just, they went out and had a good portal off season. Right. There's a lot more to it than that. So that's kind of where I come from when it comes to Miami. I just, I don't know, you know, and again, I don't know that moral crystal balls that guy. Exactly. This is the same guy who got destroyed by Oregon twice when they played each other the last time he had a chance to have a title containing team. So there's a lot. I just, I'm very much, Miami's one of the biggest show me teams of college football, but you can't dismiss that roster. I get it. It's a very, very talented roster. So at the end of the day, I've got Florida State and Clemson playing for the T for the ACC title and I've got Florida State winning it. Yeah. So that leaves Clemson winning it. I have Florida State winning the regular season game and Clemson winning the rematch. Gotcha. So that at least tells you that you will have Clemson in the top four and I have Florida State in the top four. So anybody's keeping track. 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We the vehicle owners manual for important feature limitations and information. Second conference to talk about the one is that it's just near and dear to all of our hearts or at least just nearby. That would be the big 10. And so we're going to talk about the big 10 right now. In no particular order, my title contenders for the big 10 are Penn State, USC, Oregon and Ohio State. Those are my four. What say you? I have five teams at least worth mentioning. You can't not mention Michigan. I mean, they're the defending big 10 and national titles, not national champions, right? So they have to be discussed. I just don't feel they're a team that really has a chance to win. There's just too much turmoil around that program. They don't have Jim Harbaugh to kind of harness it all. And you don't lose that many, that many championships. You don't lose that many players from a championship team and still be as good with a completely revamped roster and a completely revamped coaching staff. So they're just not in it for me. Ohio State, Oregon, no brainers in this conversation Penn State. The more I look at Penn State, the more I like Penn State and their chances for this year. I really do. Right. And then the fourth team for me, honestly, is USC. Look, I'm going to beat this drum until they prove me otherwise. This is going to be a much better USC team than last year. And we were having, you know, it's, it's, sorry, I just had to respond to something in the chat. Oh, okay. People are like DJ, who in the legs, just a guy might, well, okay, agreed to disagree, but even he's still a just a guy who won the ACC title. And the pushback is, well, lots of jags win conference championships. My response is, isn't that what we're talking about? Right. Are we talking about conference championships? So whatever. Well, look, if you want to put Cam Ward and DJ next to each other, then that's fine. Who has a winning record as a starter every year has ever played and who's never been part of a winning team at the power five. See, and that's the thing. Like, okay, if we're just talking talent, yeah, Cam Ward has more talent. Sure. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. But like, yeah, but anyway, back to the big 10, Ohio State, Oregon, those are my top two contenders. No brainers, two best rosters in the league, easily two best rosters in the league, two teams with first year portal quarterbacks. Yeah. Right. So we're not anti portal, first year portal quarterbacks. You've got Penn State to me is that next team, they're the sneaky team. I don't think Penn State has enough firepower on offense on the perimeter to beat one of those top two for the title, right, but they have a couple things that could potentially go in their favor this year on defense in the running game. Sure. And I like what they did a coordinator that could, could maybe make them a sneaky team and their schedule sets up relatively well for them to have a good season. And then USC is who I was talking about before. There was a conversation in the chat yesterday about how USC just is not a good defensive team yet in there. And we don't know that they will be, right, because they haven't been. But I don't think Notre Dame fans appreciate enough how good of a higher De Anton Lynn and Eric Henderson and Doug Belk were as a group. Many of them individually doesn't move the needle a ton. Obviously De Anton Lynn is their defensive coordinator. You know, he's the guy that completely turned around UCLA last year. They had a terrible defense in 2022. He turned it around in one year, one off season. And then he's now at USC Eric Henderson was the D line coach at the Rams and Doug Belk was the decordinator Houston, who Marcus Freeman interviewed as one of the finalists for the decordinator job when he first got hired as the head football coach. And also they had some very good portal pickups. And their entire, their secondary is going to be completely new outside of maybe one spot. But two of the portal pickups, I don't love portal pickups in the secondary, I don't love revamped secondary events in the portal because there's so many different things you have to learn, coverage wise and all that. But in the unique case here, two of those kids are from UCLA. So John Humphrey and Camari Ramsey are coming, they already know the defense. And so I think that's going to help them as well. I just, I think they're not going to be a great defense, but they're going to be a lot better on defense. I think that not having Caleb Williams is going to force Lincoln or either to go back to scheming people and going back to being more balanced, which I think is going to make them a better team. So they may not be as talented at certain spots on offense, mainly quarterback. But I don't think that's going to be, I think they're going to be better on the O line. I think they're going to be a more balanced offense and they're going to be a lot better defensively. The problem is their schedule is really challenging. That's the only reason I don't have them as a legit potential title winner. But I do think USC is going to do some damage this year. And we'll have a say on who wins it, whether they're in the title game, which I don't predict, but it's possible. But more so, them beating a couple teams are going to knock somebody out of that conversation. That's kind of how I view, how I view the big 10 this year, Vince. Penn State is just that annual top 12ish, they never meet expectations, but they're still a solid team and Penn State people seem to be okay with that right now. They're always in the preseason talk in the conference, which therefore, if you're in the preseason talk for the big 10, then you are at least at the very least on the outskirts talk of a national championship, right? I mean, that that just comes with the territory. And so they're always there in the preseason, it feels like at least the last five or ten years and they always beat up on the not good teams, but then they blow it against the good teams. And with two to three losses, that always puts them in the top 15. And so they're always in the neighborhood. I think I saw a stat where if there was a 12 team playoff, like six of the last eight or nine years, they would have been in it, right? That's who Penn State is to me, right? And they could very well be a perennial lower half of the playoff team in the big 10. That could absolutely happen. It's going to be harder with the teams that they brought in. They've got some more teams to contend with now and it's not obviously the same big 10 this year as it was last year. But I do think that they're going to be right there in contention to make the playoff. Now I don't think that they're good enough to do anything in the playoff because I just don't think they have a big game coach, right? And I think at the end of the day, no matter what kind of talent they have, he's not going to win you a big game. Like he's just not going to win you a big game. And no matter where you fall in the playoff, especially if they're in the bottom half, they're going to be playing a better team because if they're going to be playing, they're going to go on the road in that first round to someplace else that's going to be a big game and they're just not going to do well. That's just who Penn State is to me until they show me that that's not who they are. And so that's why they're in quote unquote contention in the big 10. That's why I have them third. But I don't see them challenging either Ohio State or Oregon, I just I just don't, right? And so it's like a distant third place, but third place nonetheless. And if you're third place in the big 10 with all the clout that the big 10 has, then you got to shot it, making it into the playoff. Yeah. You know what I mean? So that's my take on Penn State and I just, yeah, I will never be a Jeff Franklin. Right. Believer until he gives me a reason to believe in which is why we both have Ohio State and Oregon plan in the big 10 title game, correct. And we both have Ohio State winning, correct. So there you go. Ohio State's going to be in the top four and Oregon will probably be in the mix someplace. So moving on to the big 12, Brian, my top four in no particular order, Oklahoma State, Utah, Kansas and Kansas State. Let's say you, sir, I think you have to at least consider Arizona worth mentioning because they won 10 games last year and they have a very dynamic core. They might have the best QB to receive her combination in the big 12. Okay. You know, if a feed is as good as people make him out to be, but he doesn't suck, you know, he's trying to can make some plays and he's got town around them. I'm not a, I'm not in love with Arizona. I think they were a little smoke and mirrors last year. I think last year was kind of a flooky year. I don't think they repeat what they did last season. Utah is a legitimate contender to me, Oklahoma State's a legitimate contender to me, K-State's a legitimate contender to me. Those are the three teams I like the most. A sneaky team to keep an eye on is TCU, I really, I think they were not as good as they were two years ago. That was a flooky year. They weren't as bad as they were last year. I was an equally flooky year in the opposite direction. So a lot of things went against them last year. A lot of close games that they lost last year that they won the year before. I think they kind of settle in, but I think the way that their schedule sets up and the talent they have coming back, if they can get good play quarterback, I think TCU has a chance to surprise some people and potentially get up into that top two. So they're the other team that I'm keeping an eye on along with the others because I just think the talent at the top of that league is not so great that it dwarfs the rest of the league the way that Ohio State, Penn State, I mean Ohio State and Oregon are just clearly the two best rosters there. Miami, Florida State Clemson clearly have the three best rosters in the ACC. There's a big drop off after that, SEC sort of similar thing, big drop off. Big 12 has a lot more teams that are closer together, which could result in there being a shake up and a team that we didn't talk about when we did the big 12 playoff, but the more I study them, the more I'm like, this might just be one of those weird senior veteran returner laden teams that's the shocks everybody is Iowa State. They have like 20 starters coming back from last year. And you know, they weren't great last year, but they lost some close games. They were a team that battled. And then of course, if Kansas can get Jalen Daniels healthy for a whole year, they could be in the mix, which is why we said last week, Vince, this is going to be the most entertaining league to watch. I just routed off six or seven teams that I think could sneak up in there and win the big 12. Sure. That's not true anywhere else in college football amongst the power conferences. And part of it is because there's really good depth in the league. And the other part of it is because the top teams are not as dominant as the top teams in other leagues. And when you have closer rosters, little things like we're more experienced, our schedule is better. You know, we have more continuity from a coaching standpoint. Those type of things can be separators, you know, from, from, you know, other teams when you're in a league, like the big 12 where there are no superior teams, just a lot of really good teams. And that's what's going to make it a really fun league to watch, really fun league to watch. Yeah. No, completely agree. And we talked about this last Thursday when we did our big 12 breakdown. I mean, it's almost like you could throw half the teams in the big 12 into a hopper and just pull out one of those ping pong balls and be like, okay, I could make a case for that. You know what I mean? Like it's the most wide open, I think, of all four, the power four conferences. It's going to be the most fun to watch. And this is going to be the one where because of the parody within that conference, it's where they may get the least amount of teams into the playoff, just because they're going to be knocking each other off. You know what I mean? And I think there's a potential for a really good team to get left out at the end of the day. I think that's an absolute possibility with the big 12. But there's only so many slots. So we'll kind of see how it plays out. But at the end of the day, Brian, who do you have in your championship game? And then who do you have winning it? K state, Oklahoma state, I have K state winning the league. Okay. So we both share Oklahoma state in the finals. And then we also share Oklahoma state losing in the in the championship game. And I have Utah winning the whole thing. So Utah gets my automatic bid with Oklahoma state hoping to get an at large in the chat. Again, somebody just mentioned UCF. That's another team that you could probably bring up as a potential like you with KJ Jefferson and quarterback like that's I'd love this league. Yeah, you could be so much fun. You can make a case for like seven teams. Yes. I think I just listed eight teams K state, Kansas, Oklahoma state, Utah, Arizona, TCU, Iowa state in UCF, all got mentions as put that's eight of the what 16, big 12 teams, right, right. Like, God, this league is going to be so much fun to watch this year. I cannot wait to watch the big 12. Let me get no great teams and all that. But like the parody is not only call it parody. I mean, I hate that word parody. I know what you mean by that competitiveness. It's going to be competitively because the bench, you're correct. Technically, you're correct that. But when people say parody, they normally mean mediocre. Oh, yeah, I don't take it that way. Yeah. I think it's going to be a really fun league. Yeah. My definition of parody is that anybody can win on any day. Yeah. That's my idea of parody. That is, that is, it's going to be a very competitive, right, right? Very competitively. And that's what I said. I knew exactly as I shut you down. I was like, I knew you, I know what you meant by parody. I just, I, it's like the word game manager quarterback, that's meant to be a compliment. But it's turned into an instant. It's never taken like that. Right. Exactly. Exactly. That's going to be a fun league to watch. Right. So our last conference to talk about in this segment is the SEC and we kept them for last because I don't know, S is at the end of the alphabet. So that's why the SEC is last. And I do think they're going to be the best league, the best power for team this league. And I don't disagree. I don't normally, I'm not one of those people that every, oh, ACC is the dumb, you know that I don't feel that way. Right. But in this case, they are the best league, the best power for league. If you take whoever you think is the number three team in the SEC and you put them up against whoever you think is the number three team in the other power three conferences, or the other power for conferences, excuse me, I don't think it's close. You know what I mean? Like I just don't, I don't think it's close. You take their, how many? Like if you take the number three team in the SEC and you match it up with the number three team in the other three power for conferences, I don't think it's that close. The only, the big 10 maybe, if, if Penn State is better than we think it is, maybe, and if Miami figures it out coaching wise, I get it, they have the talent to do so. Yeah. But I'm, I'm likely to agree with you. The other part of it is who finishes third? Right. That part, that part of like, so the team that I am predicting finishes third, finishes third, then your answer is absolutely correct. Okay. You know what I mean to that guy. That's, that's part of it too. I think you could even go down to the fourth team in the SEC. Right. Well, and then you have a lot of other people's number three team. Yeah. And that's the thing. So the depth, I think is better than the other leagues and that's absolutely the point that I was making. It gets even worse. If you go to the number four SEC and that's one of the worst across five, they're six or really, no, I don't think they're five and six have a chance to win the title. Right. Because of how good the teams to the top are. Sure. It's a very deep league. Right. So my four in no particular order are Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss and Georgia. Those are my four at the top of the SEC. You said Texas Ole Miss, Georgia, Alabama, right? Yes. Agree. All four of those are in my title contenders. There's one team that I do think has to at least be discussed as a potential sleeper team. Okay. If, and that's LSU. I knew you were going to say that like you can't discount the talent they have coming back on offense. But quarterback Nuss Meijer has played a lot of football during his career and he's got some ability. They have, and here's thing though, they're going to have one of the best of the lines in the SEC and they're going to be very talented on the perimeter. You can't ignore that. Now do I think they're going to win the SEC? No. Could they sneak in as the number two, potentially, potentially, their schedule is challenging. The reason I say, I don't think they have really a much of a shot is still their defense just doesn't have great talent. I know, but they revamped their staff. They brought in Coach Davis. Coach D line. They brought in Coach Baker to be their decordinator. I mean, they've revamped some things. I believe they brought Coach Raymond back to be their DB coach who's had, they've had success with in the past. I believe they brought him back this year. You know, the problem is they just don't, outside of Harold Perkins and a couple guys, they just still lack talent on the defense. That's the problem. I think that's going to be there in doing, but I think there's enough talent and Brian Kelly had one of his better off seasons from a coaching changes standpoint in his career that I think LSU at least needs some conversation here, in my opinion. Tennessee is a team that people are going to talk about. They lost way too much on defense, in my opinion, for them to be in this conversation. They're going to be better than they were last year, Vince. They lost way too much on defense. In Oklahoma, I'm just not a believer in Oklahoma. You lost five starting offensive linemen, and you're getting right ahead to the SEC. That's a bad, bad recipe, bad combination of factors. So I'm not on the Oklahoma hype train, Tennessee's not a, Missouri's not a legitimate contender to me. I know that they're highly ranked. I just don't see it with Missouri. I think they lost too much off their defense, including players and coaches, and they're just not a team that reloads the way that other teams do. But again, that's a lot of teams that other people might mention is potential contenders in the SEC. And again, it just shows how deep this league is of really good football teams. Like the big 12 is deep in really quality teams. The SEC is deep in really, really quality teams. You know what I mean? And that's the difference between the two, but those are the teams that I view as contenders. Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, and LSU, that's my legitimate teams that I think are going to be playoff contenders, as well as potential title contenders. And then who do you have in your title game? I have Texas versus Alabama. Okay. And I have Alabama winning. Okay. Kayleigh Borges has the number of Steve Sarkeesian so far. Okay. So I have Texas and Georgia in the final, and I have Georgia winning it. So and, you know, to kind of go back to the SEC breakdown that we did, I've got Texas winning the regular season match up between Georgia and Texas, and then Georgia winning the rematch in the SEC title game. So just for context purposes, yeah. So that's where I'm at with that. So, anything else to say about the conferences, Brian? Do you want to know who I have winning the SEC? Yeah, you said-- I told you who was in it. I thought you said who won. Nope. You said Sarkeesian doesn't have what it takes against. That's right. I did, but I didn't say you're correct. Okay. I knew that. Sorry. I just processed that. No, no, it's my fault. You read me correctly. I have Alabama winning it. Okay. All right. I do. I see it. I've got Georgia getting the automatic seats. I will say this, Vince. I think Georgia is a better team than Alabama. The difference is, is their schedule. Sure. That's the big thing for me. Their schedule sets up, Alabama's schedule sets up way better, in my opinion, than Georgia's. And that's why I think Alabama's going to win the league. I think Alabama's going to be a much better team than people think. I don't think they're the best team in the SEC. I think their schedule sets up best. They get Georgia at home. They get Missouri at home. They get Auburn at home. They don't have to play Ole Miss. They don't have to play Texas. They have to play at LSU, at Tennessee, and at Oklahoma, which again is why I've said, nobody's going undefeated this year. Sure. But I just think they're going to Georgia's schedules way tougher, in my opinion. So I have Alabama winning, winning that league. Okay. So there you have it. Our conference breakdown for who is going to make it, who is going to be in contention, who is going to win, and therefore get the automatic seeds. So that's going to do it for part one of our show today. Make sure you hit the like button, the subscribe button, the notification bell. Share with your family and friends, and of course, jump on the boards, boards.averagebreakdown.com for all your intel and Notre Dame team needs. It's all there. After you get on it. [Music], we'll be right back. [Music], we'll be right back. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
