Jerry Palm | CBS College Sports Insider

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Visit carvana.com or download the app to get an instant offer today. I always learn something when our friend Jerry Palm joins us and he's been with CBS Sports. Well, I mean, I met him and we were already employees of the same company. So how long, Jerry, have you been with the company? Uh, 2011 full-time. There you go.

Look at you. So like, what's that, 12 years? It's a long time.

Yeah, we're about to celebrate our 11th anniversary. So yes, you just beat us by a hair. Let's talk about the latest from the college football playoff rankings. Georgia leapfrogs Ohio State.

Not a surprise given the last two weeks. But how close are these two teams at the top? Oh, they're still pretty close. You know, Georgia's picked up two high-ranking wins in Missouri and Mississippi in the last two weeks. And those were their first two quality wins of the season.

Ohio State already had a couple. Now their big one is that they beat Penn State and now they had a win earlier at Notre Dame. Notre Dame's loss to Clemson a couple weeks ago actually hurt Ohio State because that win doesn't look quite as good now. It's still a good win, but it doesn't look quite as good now as it did before that.

So it's really hair-splitting between those two. But Georgia's wins are better and I think that that's in the end what put them over the top. What if, you know I love what ifs, what if both these teams went out, meaning Ohio State beats Michigan and has a top three victory then, how does that transpire? How does that affect the final rankings? It could put Ohio State back on top, but you know that's not of course the only game because they each play, Georgia will play Alabama and that's another, I mean that's number eight.

Well that's a really good team. And Georgia also has I think Georgia Tech still. Ohio State's got Maryland I think before that.

So you know a couple of games that they should win pretty easily and then of course their championship, yeah the championship game. So for Georgia that's the Alabama game. For Ohio State it would be Iowa and Iowa's a team in the ranking.

So it could be pretty close for number one that the rest of the season if those two teams continue to win. When we're thinking about these top five then the teams that are undefeated, how much separation from Georgia to Ohio State and on down through the rest of that crew? Yeah it feels like the committee has been relatively soft on Michigan and just because their schedule, they just don't really respect Michigan's schedule. Not just you know the Big Ten portion of their schedule because the Big Ten is really divided. You've got Michigan, Ohio State, another gap to Penn State and then a big gap to everyone else, which includes Iowa. And I don't think the committee really has a lot of respect for Michigan's schedule because they didn't play a good non-conference schedule and they've only played Penn State so far among the better teams in the league. They didn't even get Iowa in conference. So Michigan's had a hard time getting above three.

But Florida State and Washington are two really different teams. Florida State does not have a very good schedule but they did beat LSU. They beat them pretty soundly.

That's their one good win. And then Washington's you know play in Pac-12 teams every week so they've got I think three ranked wins now, two in the last two weeks and they can't seem to get over the hump. And it's because of margin of victory. This committee seems to be rewarding big scoring margins more than other committees have. In the past and well Florida State has won for the most part pretty big and Washington has been barely getting by some of their games. You know one single digit wins and I think half of them and they're just you know they're not blowing people out but they're beating better teams. And I think in the past the margin of victory of Florida State's games would not have as much impact as they seem to this year. Do you like that move with this current committee?

You don't? No not really. I think they should emphasize more the quality of the opposition. I don't think you can ignore it because it's football and you only have 12 games and you don't it's not like basketball where you everybody's playing three times as many games as that and you know basketball margins are kind of weird because of the way the games end with free throws and stuff like that. They can be deceptive.

So you definitely should not be using it in basketball but I think they should use it less in football. I don't I think that when you when you're stacking the quality wins that Washington is I think that that should be rewarded. Jerry Palm is with us early morning. I can't keep up with his hours.

You think ours are strange and odd. This time of the year you've got both football and basketball and so I know you're sometimes up late and then you wake up late and then you wake early. So we're glad that we could spend a few minutes with you and he does the college football playoff committee analysis but also does the same for March Madness and has all those brackets on cbssports.com.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. So Jerry then when you look at teams behind this group who has the best potential to be able to make a sizable leap and get into the top four based on what they still have to come. Yeah well Oregon is the highest rated one loss team. Their loss came at Washington three-point game and they get to play probably Washington again in a Pac-12 championship game if both those teams went out. So you'd have to like their chances as a one loss team.

You would like Texas as well. Texas has got the best win anybody has and that will probably still be true at the end and that is the win at Alabama. So unless Ohio State wins at Michigan that's probably going to be the best win anybody has all year and that is really Texas is being rewarded for that. They've been ahead of Alabama all the way and if Alabama beats Georgia and Texas wins out, Texas is probably still going to be ahead of Alabama.

So you know those two teams among the one loss teams are really in the best shape to try and make a push to get into the final four. Anything about the rankings to this point that make you scratch your head that you don't you don't agree with? Well yeah there are a couple of things I mean I already talked about how like margin of victory has impacted a couple of the rankings where you know I think Washington should be ahead of Florida State and I think that perhaps Missouri you know which has had a big win over Tennessee jumped way up past just about everybody. In fact even one lost Louisville to number nine this week on a strength of a 20 some point win over Tennessee and I just felt like that was an overreaction.

Although I'm glad to see Missouri among this group of teams because that's a name you don't often see up and you know they could end up in a New Year's six bowl and that's you know they've got a good program but you don't often see them in this this high a cotton and so it's fun to see a team like that up there but I think that that's another team where perhaps you know the committee over reacted to per one game. Moving forward Jerry how much and we can use this current year as a model how much would it look different if this was an expanded playoff? Will the committee treat it differently when it's expanded playoff? I don't think so because the process for ranking the teams doesn't change once you go past four you know they're ranking 25 and you know the process is the same the criteria is the same obviously the teams are different and what's good and bad about them is different the further you go down but I don't think they need to change anything. What's going to change is how many teams they end up putting in a bracket and where they go so but no I don't think it really changes much for the committee in terms of how they evaluate teams once we get into a 12 team playoff. Right now it's all well it's mostly big-time schools you know the the major conferences the power five so to speak how much do you think that's volatile once the playoff expands?

That'll be interesting to see I mean you have to I think it's hard for the two ways of the world to try and get the kind of games that they need to push much higher in the rankings but the nice thing about the 12 team playoff is there will be at least one in the playoff every year because they're going to take it looks like they'll probably do with the demise of the Pac-12 they're going to have the top five conference champions automatically in the top five in the rankings and then seven at-large teams and that get that that's going to guarantee one spot at least for a group of five team in the rank in the in the playoff every year and that's something they don't have now so it's going to be better for them but it's not necessarily going to be easier to put more than one team in because they just it's hard for them to get the kinds of games they need to get the committee's attention. Jerry Palm is with us here after hours CBS Sports Radio what's your reaction to the Jimbo Fisher situation where Texas A&M letting him go and having to pay oh through the nose for him? Well you know if you're going to sign a contract that's really got that kind of I'm going to just say stupid money in it. Monopoly money? Yeah then you know it's I why did you why did you sign them to that kind of a deal to begin with I mean did they really need to couldn't they got it for a little less but the buyouts in some of these contracts are crazy and you know if it doesn't work out it ties your hand that it's not just Texas A&M you know paying a lot of money because it's all relative you know Indiana for example is you know there's a lot of talk that maybe Tom Allen won't survive this season but he's got a relatively large buyout for a place like Indiana and they're made they may not want to pay it so you know that's kind of a thing in these contracts now is that the coaches are getting these big buyouts and it makes it harder to cut ties if in fact it's not working out so you know A&M I guess is you know they got a ton of money down there apparently so so they're going to pay and we're telling like all the assistants and stuff I think I thought it's going to be 125 million they're going to be paying people to not coach a Texas A&M anymore and that's that's just I mean how much are you going to be able to spend on a new guy I guess I don't know they must just be printing money down there oh it's seriously okay so you know me because we're friends I laugh at inappropriate times let's hope that doesn't happen while I'm doing my wedding vows in a month but sometimes when I get nervous I laugh at but I also just laugh when it's just not it's not the right thing to do it's I'll just confess that when I saw the ruling from the judge about Oregon State and Washington State I did actually giggle a little bit because they now have sole control over the PAC-12 board of directors just just the two schools it's it's all them it's all people from those two schools first of all what does it even mean I don't understand how those two schools can yeah I don't get it are they still a conference or are they not they want to be you know there's some value in the PAC-12 you know name and and keeping that entity alive because they have NCAA tournament units and there's a fair amount of money in that and they have they also have debt they have a like a 50 million dollar debt owed to Comcast gosh that the whole mismanagement of that league is just it's sad you know I mean I think it's fair that they those two should have the the control going forward because they're they're the only ones left and they're trying to salvage something here but it's the whole thing just it frustrates me to see you know that conference just gone like this then as a Big Ten guy I'm a little disappointed in in our league for being the one that kind of stuck the final knife in by grabbing Oregon and Washington because we've had a good relationship with that league you know strong relationship with that league for 100 years and just you know anyways it's just that the disappearance of the PAC-12 is something I find frustrating so if if they end up inviting member school it's kind of a tough situation or new members I should say a tough situation to walk into because you're assuming all that debt there's no legit TV program or anything like that TV package I mean I'm not sure I I know there are a lot of mid-majors but that's a tough situation why would another school want to walk into that yeah I think they're gonna have to I think they're gonna try and do something with the Mountain West where the name still exists they could maybe even be still considered a major conference although I kind of doubt it but but you know the assets of the what's left of the PAC-12 and the Mountain West could be combined in some way to create a viable league that's that's better for both of them but uh you know I'm not a I'm not a lawyer or an accountant so you know I don't know how all of that's gonna work but I think that's the longer term game plan but you they've got to have control of the name of the league they have to have control of the league in order to be able to even start approaching things like that as the world turns he may not be an accountant or an attorney but he is a damn good analyst for college football playoff committee rankings uh plus March Madness I mean it's already on his brain even though it's November but it'll be here before you know it so find him on twitter at jp palm cbs uh he's he calls himself a geek but I mean that's because I am that's an affectionate term well I call myself a nerd computer science well right but I I tell people being being a nerd is also a huge compliment so we are in the same boat there uh thank you for a couple of minutes good morning to you and uh we'll find your stuff on cbsports.com jr all right thanks nice talking to you walk the dogs school drop-off meetings from 10 to 3 take kids to soccer then no time left for a jog when everyone else is relying on you it's easy to put your needs last better help connects you with a licensed therapist online so you can show up for yourself the way you do for others visit betterhelp.com slash positive 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