Jerry Palm | CBS College Sports Insider

So excited to welcome our friend Jerry Palm, a college sports insider. He calls himself a geek, but I kind of feel like nerd is more appropriate and I say that with all of the affection I can possibly muster.

He's my favorite nerd. Jerry Palm joining us now because he's got a full day, right? You're doing other interviews.

You're in hot demand. Yeah, it's a busy time of year, the last week of the regular season for college football and a lot gets decided this weekend. Obviously not conference championships, but who will play for them does get decided. There'll be playoff implications. There'll be implications for the other New Year's six bowl game and just bowl eligibility. We have a team in a bowl already.

What? Miami, Ohio. Miami, Ohio beat Ball State last night and accepted a berth to the Bahamas Bowl for the max. Who wouldn't accept a team in a bowl game? Yeah, who wouldn't accept a bid to the Bahamas Bowl, really?

Okay, yeah, they were very excited. Yeah, that was a winner-take-all game. The winner would go to the Bahamas Bowl, but most of the bowls don't get announced until after the championship game, so December 4th, but the Bahamas Bowl gets to announce early because they've got some logistical things to do to get people into a foreign country. Sure, top four teams in the college football playoff rankings remain the same. They are the undefeateds in FBS, so we've got uh the Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, TCU and this incredible battle between Ohio State and Michigan coming up on Saturday. All the rage, obviously.

Here's my question, Jerry. What happens with the loser of this game in terms of the playoff implications? Well, probably not much because the Big Ten this year outside of those two and Penn State has been really mediocre. So much so that my school, Purdue, might actually get to play for the title as a 30-point underdog probably against one of those two teams.

Oh no! So, but that's, you know, it's more likely Iowa. Still, Iowa was so bad offensively for the first two months of this season that people were wondering why they didn't fire their offensive coordinator while he's the son of the head coach.

You know, so there was a lot talked about Iowa for the first two months. Now they're actually the favorite to get to the title game to play Ohio State or Michigan. So the loser has got a strength of schedule problem because other than Penn State, they haven't been able to beat anybody good. Ohio State has a win over Notre Dame, so they've got the better case as an 11-1 team versus Michigan who played, you know, three. Well, UConn actually had a surprisingly good year, but they're six and six and the other two are among the worst in the FBS. So it's their strength of schedule is going to hold them down for sure, but Ohio State's got that problem as well to a lesser degree.

So it's winner is in the playoffs and the loser is certainly out. Jerry Palm is with us from where are you this morning, Jer? I am at home.

Are you? Okay. All right. So do you call it dressing or stuffing? I actually kind of call it both.

I guess I call it stuffing if it's definitely stuffed in the turkey. All right. Leave it to Jerry to be technical about it. I use them interchangeably.

Okay, got it. Because my mom's whole side of the family's from Northeast Ohio, so kind of the Midwest, and we're hearing from a lot of people who call it dressing there. We call it dressing regardless of how it's prepared. It's just dressing in the turkey. Dressing stuffed in the turkey. Yeah, I just, I use them interchangeably. You eat it.

You don't necessarily have to identify it. Yeah. Got it.

All right. So we talk about Ohio State Michigan and that big game that's coming up and certainly conference championships. Is there anything that you know for sure about the college football playoff or is everything still on the table? Well, unless Georgia loses to Georgia Tech, they're in. They could lose to LSU in the SEC championship game. They will still be in. So that's the one team that we know for sure is going to play in the college football playoff, barring, you know, like this massive upset. And that's going to be true of the Ohio State Michigan winner as well. That team will also be in barring, you know, a massive upset.

So, you know, those are the sure things after that. It gets a little sketchy what happens if TCU loses, especially if they lose a conference championship game, because being a conference champion is criteria in a sense. For the college football playoff committee, conference champion gets some priority in tie-breaking type situations that they're evaluating teams. So it is important being 12-1 and a conference champion is better than 12-1 and not a conference champion in this situation. So what happens if TCU loses? Can USC finish the job for the Pac-12 and put them in the playoff for the first time in, oh, only 16, I think.

It's been a while. Washington, I think, was the last team. So, you know, there's a lot of doubt still things that can happen, but there's really only the six teams, I think, that have a legitimate shot at the playoff without some Armageddon scenario.

Okay, because that's what I was going to ask you next. What's the lowest team down that would have a shot at the playoff? But you're telling me LSU, USC, who are five and six, are really the only other options unless everything blows up?

I don't even know how that would happen. Yeah, I mean, LSU has to beat Georgia, so good luck with that. But Clemson at 12-1, the ACC is really down this year. Plus, they lost to Notre Dame, which is the best team they will have played. It's going to be hard for Clemson to get in at 12-1.

They're going to need a lot of help and probably help that's not realistic. Jerry Palm is with us on this Thanksgiving Eve. Do you guys have a bunch of Thanksgiving prep to do today? Yeah, it's going to be shopping for last-minute ingredients we forgot to get. Some of the desserts are going to get made today.

My daughter likes to bake, so she's going to be doing it. The boys are coming. Carson's already here. I think he comes from Purdue, so the other boys are coming today, so it's going to be a full house.

Oh, well, you tell your daughter that she and I share that because that's what I'll be doing on Wednesday as well. Good to spend a couple of minutes with Jerry Palm. We don't want to keep it too technical, though. We've got a lot still to come in college football, and we'll see how this rivalry weekend plays out in Championship Weekend. How are you feeling about the Chicago Bears and this new-look offense for Justin Fields on the run?

Well, it's about time. I mean, that's the strength of this quarterback right now. He can become a better passer, and it would help if he had an offensive line that could pass protect and receivers that were better than they have. They could build that around him in the offseason, but in the meantime, the best thing they could do is give him the freedom to run the ball, and he's very good at that. It's a much better offense suited to him. You've got to give the coaches credit because they had that winky time between games. It wasn't really a buy, but like a mini-buy, but they took that time to evaluate what they were doing offensively. It made a change to better suit their personnel.

That's what good coaches do, so roster still isn't good enough to win a lot of games, but they're a lot more fun to watch now. Okay, a couple of questions we're posing to our listeners tonight. What's the one Thanksgiving dish that must be there to complete the table, Jer? Oh, gosh. You mean besides the turkey? No, you could say turkey if that's your fave. If the bird is the fave, then... Actually, for me, it's dessert. I really enjoy the pumpkin pie. That's awesome. I like it. So this year, I'm not making a pie, which is really strange for me because normally I'm the pie person, but I'm going with oatmeal butterscotch cookies. They're very festive. They're a hit, and they've got the orange chips, which fits, and I'm making an apple crisp and a crock pot, which was a big hit last year. It would be.

They didn't. Yeah, no, it's great. It actually took me 20 minutes to pick the kind of ice cream. I don't know what that says about me. I had more trouble picking out the ice cream.

There's so many different varieties of vanilla. Did you know that? Yeah. But here's the thing. I wasn't asked to bring a pie. I almost feel like I'm losing an appendage or I'm missing an arm or something.

No pie for me this year. Sure, bring one anyway. That's true. I could.

I could bring one, but you know me, Jerry. It's not like it's like, yeah, they'll eat it. That's true. That's true.

Here's the thing though. I would have to be very careful about transporting these into my friend's home because you know me. I'm a klutz, and if I tried to carry all three desserts all at once, something would hit the pavement. So I'm gonna have to be multiple trips. Yes, gonna have to be very careful. All right, and this is a goofy one, but I just, I know you.

You come through in the klutz. Who's your favorite character from the Peanuts? Oh, Charlie Brown. I identified with him more, but I'm a big Peanuts person. In fact, one of the things that we do with Thanksgiving is that as an appetizer, we have toast, popcorn, pretzels, and jelly beans sitting out as the appetizer for Thanksgiving because that's, of course, the dinner that Charlie Brown first served for Thanksgiving.

So that's, yeah, I'm a big Peanuts guy, and Charlie Brown is the one I identify with the most. Is his sister ever gonna let him kick that darn football? No.

It wouldn't be the same. My favorite's Pig Pen. Don't you just love how the cloud follows him everywhere? Yeah, you can always find him on the screen.

Yes, you definitely can. Oh, Jerry, you're such a good sport. I know you're busy and you have other interviews because I was perusing your Twitter.

You can follow Jerry on Twitter at JP Palm CBS. You're a good sport. You're a lot of fun. Thank you for getting up early for us, and have a great Thanksgiving, Jerry, with the fam. You too. Nice to talk to you. Yes, you too. Tell Vicki we said hello. I will. Thanks.