Wolken: Alabama Isn't A National Title Contender

Joining us is Dan Wolk. Dan, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm excellent.

Thank you for taking the time. Right before we went to break, we had played a clip of Cam Ward. He kinda said, hey, we blew our opportunity. They took our opportunity away.

He was talking out of both sides of his mouth. What are your thoughts on this whole ACC Miami outside looking in situation? Well, look, I think for every team that's kind of on that cut line, it's very, very close. And you can make an argument for or against any of these teams.

At the end of the day, they're all very flawed. If you're Miami, it's hard to have a lot of sympathy because they had it all in their own destiny. They controlled their fate. They had a 21-0 lead at Syracuse last weekend. And they blew it. They lost the game.

And so, when you're in that situation, it's a win and an end type of deal. And they didn't get the job done. And if you look at their resume, they don't have the high quality wins to offset the losses. Alabama does have some high quality wins. I'm not saying I agree with the decision, but I do understand where the committee is coming from in looking at a team that had beaten Georgia, a team that beat Missouri, beat South Carolina versus a Miami team that just doesn't really have much there. Well, Dan, when you look at what's going to take place, the conference championship games, we got UNLV. I still can't believe the quarterback quit mid-season.

He said, I want my money and I'm getting I'm leaving. We got UNLV and Boise State Saturday. We got the Big 12 championship.

How is Friday and Saturday going to play into who necessarily goes ahead and gets a bye? Well, I think the committee is certainly going to be looking at the Big 12 championship game. Either Iowa State or Arizona State is going to have a pretty high quality win to add to their resume. And then, yeah, with Boise, they've got a tough one against UNLV. We'll see what they look like.

Eye tests will matter somewhat. But yeah, between the Big 12 champion and the Mountain West champion, you know, it's been the Mountain West that they've had in that slot. But if Boise State wins and maybe doesn't look as impressive, I can certainly see them changing their mind. When you think about the current construction of the college football playoff, we know it's 12 and the top four conferences, they go out there and get bys. Do you think that is something that needs to get adjusted given the strength of some of these conferences?

Sorry, Mountain West. Well, I think what needs to be adjusted is the seeding situation for sure. You know, in any tournament, in any sport situation, the team that had the best season, the best team, is the number one seed.

And the second best team is the number two seed. And that is the most accurate way to build a tournament. The way they're doing it now, I understand the idea was to get everybody a chance from these different conferences to make the conference championships meaningful.

I certainly understand that. But I don't think it's worked out maybe the way that they intended. I think that it just makes the bracket unbalanced and a little bit unfair. And I do think that that's something they need to look at adjusting in the future.

And Dan Wolken is here with us from USA Today. So you're advocating that just rip up the conferences of the automatic bias to stretch, just go by record or what do you think? Well, I mean, I think you could probably make a pretty small adjustment and just say, you know, the top two seeds or the top two conference champions get the number one and number two seed and then you can fill everybody else in based on ranking. Like that may be an easy way to fix the problem. I mean, I'm sure they could just do straight ranking. There's a lot of different ways they could look at it. But I just think that three and four seed becomes really problematic because the way it's playing out right now, you know, potentially that five seed is better.

It's a more attractive path than the one seed. If you look at how the bracket shakes out, it's an easier game. Yeah, you play an extra game, but you're playing an easier opponent in that quarterfinal. So I think there's a good chance that all of this gets changed in the next year or two.

Reasonable, reasonable. Well, Dan, having said that, there's a lot of people who look at Alabama and just go, well, they're in because they play in the SEC and they are Alabama. What are your thoughts on them being in and then the likelihood of them maybe still competing and realistically winning it? Well, I don't think Alabama is going to win a national championship. I don't think they're that quality team.

I mean, they play well on certain days, but they've had some really bad games. And I think the Jalen Milro situation is very curious because if you look at that game against Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago, he really did not play very well. So, is he developing at the right pace for them? I think that's a big question mark, not just for this year, but what's going to happen to his career. How fair is it to criticize Kalen DeBoer when he didn't recruit the quarterback to his team?

He inherited Milro and is it just not a system fit? These are all interesting questions, but Alabama with those three losses, two of them, Vanderbilt and to the worst Oklahoma team of the 21st century, I think that's a real negative and that's why a lot of people are going to be up in arms if they do get in. Well, Dan, what teams do you think legitimately have the best chances and odds of competing for a title regardless of where they're slotted in the 12? Well, I think if you were to give me Oregon and Georgia and Texas, if you gave me those three versus the field, I think I'd take those three.

Okay, I'm certainly understood. Dan Volkin is joining us from USA Today. Notre Dame, obviously not slotted in here with any of the conferences, got popped early against Northern Illinois and here they've just run the table the rest of the way. What are your thoughts on how they fit in here? They played really, really well. You know, as you look at the second half of the season or really just after that Northern Illinois loss, it was so shocking and so disappointing. I mean, they've been tremendous. They take care of business, but you know, they also have not played the most robust schedule either. They've got a couple, you know, good wins, some solid wins, but I also think that you can, you know, you can question the competition that they've been playing week in and week out, but I like their team. I think they responded the right way to that Northern Illinois win, enough to where I think you can just write that off as a kind of a fluke. With all of the changes that we've had in college football, looking at an SMU just didn't exist years ago and we see NIL has basically helped them rise from the dead, literally, and we see so much going on. The truth is, you know, the transfer portal, we got quarterbacks saying, I'm not playing, I'm moving on.

Is this what we need to get used to into the future, especially as a college football playoff is maybe likely going to expand again into the future? Dan? Oh boy.

Hickey, what happened? Did I ask Dan the wrong question? What happened to Dan? I guess so. We'll try to find out here.

Yeah. And I hope Dan is okay. I asked him about the future.

I didn't ask him for the lottery numbers. He just disappeared. I want to know, Hey Dan, you okay? Yeah. Technical issue there. Yeah. Look, I think we're in a transient time. I think from year to year, there's going to be a lot more volatility just because the personnel is going to change so much from, from year to year. And there's definitely going to be people moving around who you don't expect.

And you know, the whole idea of development, I think is just gone now, you know, over a two or three year period. I think it's more, you know, I wouldn't say instant gratification, but I just think it's more like, listen, um, people are going to have needs from one year to the next. They know that there's an opportunity to fill them with people who are ready to step in right away.

And that fundamentally changes the dynamic from year to year of how these teams operate. You talk about movement movements, Lincoln Riley, his name has certainly been bandied about as a potentially moving along. We see Miller Mars has already jumped ship.

What are your thoughts on what's going on out there? Well, I mean, it's been really disappointing. They, they paid him a lot of money for sure. And he has not fulfilled those high expectations. You know, they thought when they hired him that they were getting a generational talent. Um, but he really hasn't delivered. You know, the first year they were really good with Caleb Williams. Uh, but you know, at the end of the day, uh, that's one guy, you know, and you, you need a lot of guys to compete at the, at the national championship level and they just haven't gotten there yet. So, uh, the problem is, you know, I don't think he can leave and I don't think they can fire him because there's just too much money involved.

Hey, Dan, last question for you. I want to ask you about someone who's not going to be competing in the playoff, but his name was certainly brought up here on the show earlier as it relates to the Jacksonville Jaguars. That's Travis Hunter. As he takes that next step and jump forget the bowl game, as he prepares for the NFL draft, what do you think his best situation is in the professional level? Well, I'm not well versed enough in, you know, all the, the teams and the needs and, and where he would fit in, but it's an interesting question because he is so talented on both sides of the ball.

You know, in the NFL, I think it's hard to play both ways. Um, you know, in the question is just what's his best position. Is he good enough as a receiver to play that exclusively? Is he good enough as a corner to play that exclusively?

I'm unsure. Um, but obviously he's a, he's a unique talent and, um, you just watch him play. He, he controls the game whenever he's, he's in, he's, he's just like a magnet in some ways.

Um, he dictates what happens and what the other team does. So, uh, yeah, I think he's an exciting prospect and, you know, we'll see, we'll see what the, what the pro guys think of him. The future Heisman award winner? I would think so. Yeah. Okay. Dan Walken here with us. Dan, where can people follow you and all of your work with USA today?

Um, yeah, you just said it and, uh, at Twitter on, uh, Daniel at Dan Walken. Hey Dan, thank you so much. Enjoy the week. And it's going to be a fun one. Okay. Thank you.