Bill, how are you?
Hey, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on. Well, thank you for taking the time to join us. Right before you came on, we talked about Alabama and a lot of their fans bellyaching about the fact that they're not in in this first year, first season of the Kellen DeBoer era. What are your thoughts on Bama not making it in and their responses given their strength of schedule?
Well, I think most of us would. Now, having said that, and having gone through this first exercise here, 12-team expansion, is there anything that you would adjust? Or do you think, hey, we got 12 teams now, hey, y'all battle it out and figure it out?
I think more of that. And I'll tell you this, you know, what I struggled with the most on Saturday night as I was trying to put together our projections was, how are they going to feed five to eight? How are they going to feed Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, and Texas? And I think their answer was, we're not going to penalize teams for making the conference championship game. Now, one argument Ohio State fans are having is, hey, we beat Penn State. We played Oregon to one point.
And I understand that, too, but in general, I like the first round pairings. I'm excited to watch these football games. I'm excited to watch Indiana, Notre Dame.
I'm excited to watch Tennessee, Ohio State, Texas, Clemson, even SMU, Penn State. I think they did a good job with that. That said, the big adjustment is we have to feed this thing like we rank it. You know what I mean? Like, I think one to 12 should be how they're seeded in the bracket.
That's the biggest confusion point of the whole thing. Bill Bender here with us from the Sporting News. So you're not in favor of, dare I say, like the conference bye where Boise State is now sitting pretty for a while?
Not yet. I'm happy for Boise State. You know, I grew up in the BCS era. I wanted them to get a title shot. I'm glad for Ashton Gente.
I'm glad for all of that. But I don't know that they deserve a first round bye. I don't know that Arizona State does. Now, Arizona State can prove me wrong. They were playing as well as anybody late in the season.
But I think there has to be this thought process. I compare those top four seeds to the one-season basketball. We don't have a problem with North Carolina and Duke both get one seed. Why would we have a problem if it was, you know, Oregon and Penn State or Texas and Georgia that played two? Well, that game Saturday was amazing, by the way, between Texas and Georgia. Well, Bill, having said that, we know that as of right now, Carson Beck is going to be out indefinitely. He's getting a second opinion on that arm and that elbow, which he can't raise or move. And of course, he heroically handed the ball off to ETN and they're pretty much in things. What are your thoughts on Georgia?
Is it just all up in the air depending on this guy's arm? It changes the outlook, definitely. I mean, I thought Gunnar Stockton played well, but what do we do now? I mean, I think the bigger story for them was Trevor ETN kind of giving the running game a jolt. And obviously, Carson Beck being out impacts everything.
I mean, with him, I had him making the championship game. I think one of the most impactful potential games is Notre Dame versus Georgia if Notre Dame beats Indiana. Then you have this Notre Dame team that's played awesome going to play Georgia. And the Bulldogs without Carson Beck would have to answer that question. I think they have enough talent to win the national title.
Can they actually do it without their quarterback? I mean, it also depends on which half we see, right? First half Georgia and second half Georgia have been pretty different story most of the year.
Well, the team that they just beat on, you don't got to tell me they're right on down the road. Carson Beck, man, I look at that guy, I expect interceptions, OK? I'm happy when he doesn't go out there and throw one. But the guy that was on the opposing side for Texas, Quinn Ewers, thank God he walked away healthy.
That's nice. He threw two interceptions and we know how difficult Georgia's defense is. Do you expect Texas to kind of get on a little bit more of a roll? They've only lost to Georgia. They got Clemson and if they advance, they take on Arizona. What are your thoughts on what the Longhorns can actually do? They could win the whole thing with that defense. The defense is nasty.
It stops the run. Anthony Hill, J'Day Barron, they've got NFL guys all over that unit. Quinn Ewers, I can't imagine the pressure of what he's doing knowing that Arch Manning is behind him. He throws an interception.
You see it on social media. Put in Arch! I keep telling everyone that's not going to happen. Maybe it happens in a playoff game like a Jalen Tua type thing, but Tua played a lot. I don't know that Arch has played that much other than when Quinn was out.
Quinn Ewers faces a tremendous amount of pressure. If they can run the ball, and their path is pretty good. If they can beat Clemson, Arizona State, and get in the semis, I can match Texas against Oregon or Ohio State. I think it would be a really compelling game either way because I really do trust that Texas defense. Just like you said, when Quinn Ewers' completion percentage is less than 60%, they're 0-2.
So he can't be erratic in these playoffs. Bill Bender is joining us from the sporting news. Oregon, they've been sitting No.
1 all year long. It's still a hell of an adjustment for me to think about them in the Big 10. We saw what they did over the weekend.
What are your thoughts on them? We know there's so much parity in the tournament right now. There's something to be said about being able to go through the entire season 13-0. Their defense is nasty. Their running game is good.
I think Dylan Gabriel, I haven't seen if it came out yet. I was driving, but he should be a Heisman finalist. He's done a nice job leading that team. I think Dan Landing has all the pieces in place, but as I pointed out, we had 5 teams go 15-0 the last 10 years. You have to be truly special to do that. Do we actually have a team special enough to go 16-0?
What a standard that would set for the rest of this thing with 12 teams in the playoffs. They are capable of doing it. They don't have a friendly drawl because whoever they play in that first game, whether it's Ohio State who played them to one point or Tennessee who does a lot of things well running the football, playing defense, Dylan Swanson's awesome.
Oregon doesn't have an easy drawl to the championship game, but it's been pretty fantastic what they've been able to accomplish so far. Hey, Bill, you mentioned a Heisman. Are you going with a Travis Hunza? Are we looking at a Gentsy?
What are your thoughts on how that's going to bear? Well, here, I spent my vote this morning. We're not allowed. Heisman does not allow us to reveal our vote until it's Saturday. I'll just say that it was really tough to pick because Ashton Gentsy, what a compelling case. He's so awesome, too. The way that he carries that team. The crowd was chanting, Gentsy, Gentsy, Gentsy on Friday night.
I thought it was amazing. Travis Hunza is doing some special things. It's not just the snap count. He makes impactful plays. Didn't it seem like he was always in the right place at the right time for them, whether it was on offense or defense?
That means you're a special player when you make plays like that all the time. I think Dylan Gabriel and Cam Ward deserve consideration as well. I really wish Miami would have gotten the playoffs so I could have seen Cam Ward in these playoffs because I think he is the game changer at quarterback. When you say game changer at quarterback, do you believe he will be the first QB selected in next year's draft? Do you think he's the best in college? If I was an NFL DM, I would take Chidor first.
I've watched Chidor for two years. If you look at Chidor's touchdown-interception ratio from Jackson State through Colorado, it's really quite amazing considering the number of sacks and times he was hit. I really like his game. I like Cam Ward.
He makes the occasional bad throw, but I love his game as well. Then you get into Quinn Ewers and other NFL teams. As you know, two or three teams are going to talk themselves into somebody. For me, that conversation starts with Chidor Sanders and Cam Ward. We've got plenty of time to find out soon enough who's going to walk away with the Heisman.
We've got a few months until we find out what happens with the draft. By the time we get to next month, with all of these teams in this new playoff, in this new format, who would you favor to walk away with a new trophy? Should I still say Texas? Am I allowed to say Texas? I think the Longhorns have to prove it in some of these games. I picked Oregon and Georgia yesterday.
We did some knee-jerk reactions. I do think the one thing that will make this special is there can't be a ton of chalk. What makes March Madness so special is those first-round upsets. What I'm worried about is that those four first-round games have spreads of seven points or more. So if we treat ourselves to four blowouts, we're going to sit here and say, why are there 12 teams in there? I am actually worried about that. I hope that we have some unpredictableness.
I don't know if that's a word, but I used it. I want some chaos in this thing and some teams to win that shouldn't win. I'm all for chaos. Speaking of chaos, if Texas, by what you say, not that you're a psychic, but if they win, can Quinn Hughes just get the hell out of dodge so we can watch Arch Manning?
Because what is that situation going to look like? Quinn, we know, like you say, Arch is behind him. We want to see Arch. We don't want to see Quinn. The appetite for Arch Manning is off the charts. For me, it's not just, hey, I spent a good portion of my adult life watching Peyton and Eli. I think he's really good.
I think he's mobile. I think he's fun to watch. I watched both starts.
They had me right. They had me great at starting against Mississippi State at Sporting News, and I enjoyed every second of it because he throws a beautiful deep ball. Whether it means Portal or NFL for Quinn Hughes, I think next year, seeing Arch Manning, I believe they play Ohio State early in the season.
I've got that one circled, as you can tell. That'll be a lot of fun to see him come play there. It will. It will.
It'll be cool to see what Arch can do as well. Quinn Hughes needs to move on with his life. And final question for you as we are wrapping things up here, Bill.
Talk about transitions. Bill Belichick said that he is entertaining this job at UNC. Do you think this man would fit in amongst the youngsters?
Or is this just, he's used to it already because college is such a pro thing now? I'm really intrigued by the idea of Bill Belichick wearing baby blue. I am because it reminded me of a long time ago when Bill Walsh coached at Stanford after the 49ers.
But this would be times 100. This is a guy that's won all those Super Bowls. I still think he's better fit if an NFL team wants him. He can chase Don Shula's record and go from there. But if he were to go to college, you know, his team would be pretty good on the defensive side of the ball, would be interested to see how he interacts with young players. And you can't say he wouldn't be good for the game. I think he would be great for the college game. We need characters like him. Look what Dion's been able to do in a short time. Yeah. Belichick might own the state, you know, sooner than later if he were to go down to North Carolina.
I don't know how long he'd stick around, but he'd own the state. We'll see. We got a lot to figure out over the next couple of days, several weeks, months. Hey Bill, always a pleasure. Thank you for the time. Where can people follow you and your work with the sporting news?
Yeah, I'm at sportingnews.com at Bill Bender. This is a lot of fun. Hey, can we do this again before we get into like the first round of the playoffs? This was a lot of fun to talk to you. Oh, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Hey, how about every round, except for the rounds where I'm just like, I don't know, not here. Sounds good to me. We'll make it happen.
