Thank you, Rose Bowl, Gaylord Perry died, one blue lost and the other won.

Hi, it's Adam. That's Victoria. How are you, Victoria?

Oh, you know, I'm good. Just Thursday-ing it up. It's definitely a Thursday.

It is a Thursday. And a new month. Oh, that's right, I have to flip my calendar.

We have taken in our house to, my mother-in-law has, to producing a calendar of pictures of our Weimaraner. Okay. So I have to flip, I have no idea, I don't remember what the December picture is.

It will be wintery, I know that. Right. Yeah, so I have to figure out what the new picture is. And at some point, because we have a little puppy, we have a corgi puppy named Harriet. Actually, her full name is Harriet Potter. The terrorist. She is very much terrorist. She's more Bellatrix than Harriet. Anyway, she, so she'll be incorporated into the next one. So that will be for the 2023 version. Yeah. So there's a lot of stuff that we're going to talk about. I have spent the last 40 minutes literally trying to get work done, while at the same time, watching a frantic Belgium trying to get through into the round of 16.

And they should have. Romello Lukaku, who is one of the top strikers in the world, now plays for, I think it's Inter Milan. He was at Chelsea, didn't work out. He's back to Inter Milan, where he actually had a lot of success. And he had spent some time before that at Man U.

And I don't know how many chances he had to score from right in front of the goal and didn't. And that dude is going to need some consoling. Yeah. Belgium was one of the favorites here, and they will not even advance.

Oh, wow. Croatia needed a result today. They needed either a draw or a win to advance and win the group. Actually, they did not win the group. Morocco. Oh.

Yep. I actually thought Morocco would get through, but I didn't think Croatia would. I thought Belgium would win the group and Morocco would be second, but Morocco wins the group. Croatia is second and Belgium is out.

Interesting. And actually we could see the same with Germany coming up in 2 o'clock today. Germany has to beat Japan and I think get a little help. Other than that, it's all good. Other than that, it's all good for Germany.

No, no, I'm sorry. Germany doesn't play Japan. Spain plays Japan. They're going to need Japan to beat, well, I don't know what they're going to. I haven't written in front of me, but it's too convoluted right now.

I have to study it. But anyway, Germany's playing Costa Rica, which could be a difficult opponent because Costa Rica is just a difficult team to play against. Spain didn't have any problem with them, but Germany is not Spain and Spain and Japan play. That could be an interesting match because Japan is a counter-attacking team. Anyway, nobody wants to hear my analysis of that, but it was wild to watch the end of Belgium and Croatia and Belgium.

Like if you believe in anything called expected goals, that's like your opportunities to score versus the other team. Croatia's was under one. By the way, the final score was nil-nil. Croatia's was under one. Sounds right. Belgium's was 3.29. Oh wow.

And did not score. Yikes. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Interesting. There's a lot going on, so let's go on with it.

While I'm fumbling through this, Victoria, I need you to research this for me. Okay. Peloton's best offer of the season is here. Get up to $600 off Peloton Bike, Bike Plus, or Tread packages.

Choose the package that's right for you with accessories like our cycling shoes, a heart rate band, non-slip grip dumbbells, and more. If you've been looking for a sign to join Peloton, this offer gives you everything you need to get going. This limited time offer ends December 6th. Visit 1peloton.com to learn more. All access membership separate. Offer ends December 6th, 2022.

Excludes Bike, Bike Plus, and Tread basics. See additional terms at 1peloton.com. We have to send a thank you note to the Rose Bowl. Okay. So, and this comes not just from, not from me actually, because I'm not interested in the college football playoff, other than from a professional perspective, because we'll talk about it.

I'm definitely against playoff expansion, but from the college football world at large, we need to send a thank you note to the Rose Bowl because they have acquiesced, given up favored nation status, and now we can have the college football playoff expansion to 12 teams two years earlier than we had originally been told. Oh, okay. Yeah. So again, we need to figure out where we send a thank you note. Do we need to send like an edible arrangement? Right. Those are very good. Have you ever sent an edible? Yes. They're delicious. My gosh. It's fine.

Just get the capping out. Yes. I have like the chocolate covered strawberries. Yum. I like the pineapple. Oh, I haven't had the pineapple. Not chocolate covered pineapple.

That would, that would probably, some people probably would love it. But yeah, no, I haven't. Yeah. So yes. Chocolate covered strawberries. Excellent.

Yeah. We need to send an edible arrangement or something. Some roses.

Yeah, that would be good. Rose. Well, yeah.

To the Rose Bowl. It's my first day here. Oh my God. It's okay. Thank you. It's okay. Soccer is going on at the same time.

So I think I was hitting the head of the ball. So thank you Rose Bowl. Yes. We do have one more year of the boring old convoluted way that it clearly hasn't driven interest at all. So we have one more year of this and then we'll get to that. It starts in the 24th season and it will be a 12 team playoff like we've all, it's been explained to all of us. The top four conference champions will get buys, five through will, will play in if you will.

Those opening round games, five v 12, six v 11, seven v 10, eight v nine will be on campus sites or a designated location at the discretion of the higher seed. So just throwing something out there, if the eighth seed is like, oh, I don't know, Charlotte. Yes. Whatever.

Throw it out there. If they chose to play their game at Bank of America Stadium, they could do that. Yeah. So it wouldn't have to be at wherever Charlotte plays their home games.

So I just use that as an example because it's an NFL team in a city with a school that's probably not playing in front of 70,000 people. So that all starts in 24. The week of this, of the opening round games is scheduled for the week before the week that contains Christmas.

I think next in two years in 24. I think Christmas is on a Wednesday. Yes.

Right. I think the Saturday is the 21st. So it's the week ending in the 21st. And my guess is because there are only four opening round games. My guess is that they'll probably stay away from Thursday since the NFL now has Thursdays. But I wouldn't be surprised if they had a game on Wednesday, Wednesday in prime time, a game on Friday in prime time, and then two on Saturday. Unless the NFL schedule has already poached into Saturday, which I think it might actually in 24. We haven't made the NFL schedule yet, but they're planning on it. Then it's possible because none of these teams will have played for at least two weeks. We could do a game on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday that week.

We could just do it that week. And then the quarter finals would be played in those. There are six New Year's six bowls. So the bowls are orange, peach, fiesta, cotton, rose sugar. So four of those bowls would be quarter final sites. Two of those bowls would be semifinal sites. Those have already been designated anyway. And they would basically be using the access both the New Year's six bowls as quarter final sites at some point.

And I haven't gotten the answer to this question yet. And I'm fascinated by it for the two years that are remaining on the current contract. So it would stay. My guess is ESPN would get all these games. Beyond that, this will ultimately be opened. And I think that the contract will be split. Because frankly, if you're doing it for money, and that's why they're doing it, then it's worth more money to have more networks involved.

Whether it's two or even three, it's worth more money. I also think that remember, we played the clip from Tim Brando. I wouldn't be surprised if Brando's ultimately right that by 26, if we didn't just go, ah, heck with it, let's do 16. Why not?

Tim Brando, by the way, is on the show tomorrow. So I'm fascinated by all these things. But also, will they scrap quarter finals on at neutral sites, and go to campuses? Because that would be super interesting, but also dangerous to bowls.

Think about all the bowls right now. Just use our example of the Peach Bowl, which has a great relationship with the ACC and the SEC. And because before we got to the playoff, they used to match up an ACC team and an SEC team. And for the most part, all of their pre-season games, or early season games, the kickoff games, feature either an ACC team or an SEC team, or both. So what kind of damage would be done to a Peach Bowl if we go to campus sites for the round of 16 and the quarter finals? Because if that happens, because if that happens, those schools, after you get bounced, you're not going to a bowl game. No. Just that's not, it's not going to happen.

So your fans aren't going to be interested, and the players are not going to be interested. Nope. So what happens to bowls at that level?

Now, it might be worth it to the Peach to take, let's just say the 21st and 22nd best teams in the country. I don't know. I have my doubts. Yeah. I have my doubts.

So that's something that is worth exploring down the road. So I do think that this is probably headed for campus sites because it is the best place for college football. All right, let's move on a little bit. Duke beat Ohio State yesterday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It was 81 to 72. They shot it better from three-point range. They shot it less frequently from three-point range. I'm impressed.

Yeah. Duke has taken a lot of threes and missed a lot of threes, but I think they were five of 13. So very efficient. Five of 13. If you were 10 of 26 in three-point range, it's a lot of threes, range. It's a lot of threes, but that's a good percentage. Anything over 34, 35% as a team is good.

If you can do that, that's good. Now, Duke has been bad the last couple of years shooting from three-point range. So I think it was probably by design that they shot it a lot less. They got the ball inside. They used their size. Kyle Filipowski, Derek Lively probably was better in this game than he's been in any other. Ryan Young off the bench. John Shire, the head coach on a young team trying to figure it out. We were playing games and now we're learning how to win games.

And so when you have a lead, you don't play the same way if it's a tie game or if you're down. And, you know, Jeremy thought he did a really good job. Tyrese, Jalen when he was in, just controlling our team. They did. They also played, I think, pretty good on the defensive end.

And here's Jeremy Roach. Just being locked in on the defensive end because if we can't score, another team can't score. I know we'll find our offense somehow, but we want our defensive translate to lead us to offense.

I think that kind of worked together. Is that what you want? The identity of this team to continue to be a team that leans on defense?

Definitely. Because if we lean on defense, I mean, come out with that physicality, come out locked in on defense. I mean, the offense is going to come like, shots going to fall. But if we continue to play defense, guys can't score, then it's going to be a tough time. Four 16 turnovers last night did the Blue Devils.

So if they do that, they'll get easier baskets too. Defense will lead to offense. Matter of fact, that's really what happened in Bloomington last night. I thought, whether it was Indiana's defense, which I thought was exceptional, or North Carolina just not really doing a good job of taking care of the ball, maybe not throughout the night, but in key situations, it just led to a lot of Indiana runouts. I mean, I can't even tell you how many times in the second half it looked like Carolina, hey, they might just sneak back in this sucker right here and then lazy pass or fumbled, you know, dribble off your foot or something like that.

All of a sudden, it's going the other way. And Carolina doesn't have good enough floor balance and it's a run out and an absolute lay-in for Indiana. But the Tar Heels have lost their third straight.

Armando Bacott had a double-double, but also injured his shoulder. Again, turnover to the wrong time. And I don't think their half-court defense was as, I'll just say determined, because I think they were, Rod Brind'Amour uses the term, we were there, but we weren't there. And I think for a little bit of that, North Carolina was in position, but just didn't, like, just get a little bit more up into the shooter. But they allowed guys to elevate. And Indiana scored 50 points in the paint on Hubert Davis's team.

Well, the issue was Trace Jackson Davis. They have a player that they can run offense through that can generate points for them on every possession. And as of right now, we don't have that.

We don't have that in the post. Not only can he score, he's a gifted passer. And so if you shrink the floor or you double-team, now you're leaving open shooters. And from a defensive standpoint, you're in closeouts. And when you're in closeouts, guys can put on the floor and attack the basket. I think another thing is, one of the things is not necessarily returning the ball over a lot.

All right. So again, they didn't turn it over a lot, but they turned it over at bad times. I really thought at the end of the first half and they got back in it, it looked like, all right, they'll be okay. And they came out in the second half and were really bad initially. And they did their best just to keep it viable. But Indiana was clearly the, I mean, obviously the better team. I do find, can you play the very beginning of that clip again? Well, the issue was Trace Jackson Davis.

They have a player that they can run offense through that can generate points for them on every possession. And as of right now, we don't have that. We don't have that in the post. All right. That's good.

Auto parts. Last year, Hubert Davis used the, Carolina got run at Wake Forest, just absolutely crushed at Wake Forest. And Hubert used the, they had better players than us. We're not as good as them. And it didn't work immediately, but that was like the rallying cry for them that year, last year.

This is an early use of that, because that's what that sounded like to me. And they got, hasn't been the same player, but what is it? December one today. So it's early. I am in no way concerned about whether or not North Carolina is going to be good, bad, otherwise. I said this yesterday, there was a lot of chemistry and getting on a roll that went into last year. Doesn't mean that Carolina isn't, wasn't an excellent basketball team, basketball team, but there's a lot of excellent basketball teams that don't do what Carolina did.

So you have to allow for just the fact that you just start getting it and you're confident and you're better because you're confident. There was a huge element of that, that went into winning at Cameron, winning at the final four against, but not just that game in the final four, like along the way, they got away with, wait, did they just do that again and again and again? It's not like they went into the tournament as a one seed.

So there was an element of that. And then essentially the same team comes back and they're number one in the country. And I said, this at the time, so no big deal, that we'll find out just how much last year was momentum and confidence and all of that, because it's the same team.

And for about three and a half months of that season, there weren't an automatic NCAA tournament team. Now I said, I think it's the truth is in the middle. It leans more towards really good.

So it's not dead in the middle, but it's not at the extreme. And I think they're a top 12, top 15 type team, which means you can still win a national championship, but they're not significantly better than really any of the other good teams. I mean, you might even put Duke in the same category to be perfectly honest. I don't know what Duke is yet either. It was good performance by the Blue Devils last night. Let's talk a little football because the NFL week starts tonight. Oh boy.

Does it have to? Bills and Patriots will be the game. Mike Reese covers the Patriots for ESPN.

And here's his take on the Patriots. If they lose to the bills tonight, I actually don't think that way because I look at their remaining schedule, right? They go on the road at Arizona, at Las Vegas, to me, two winnable games. They'll probably be favored in both those games on the road.

And then after that, they come back home. They have the Bengals, another team in the AFC playoff picture here at home. And then they have the Dolphins at home and then the bills. So a lot of teams that they're playing at the end of the year are in the playoff hunt that if they beat them, they could improve their own standing in the AFC. So I don't think tonight's like win or it's over, but obviously it would make it harder if they don't get the win tonight.

All right. Those are all loseable games on the road, no matter who you play as a loseable game. And the three home games after tonight are obviously loseable. I mean, I mean, they don't have any more games with the Jets that are automatic for the Patriots. So even though the Jets are good, I'm just saying that the Patriots just automatically win those. And I understand why you would think that if they lose tonight, they're out there. They are currently a game out of a playoff spot. So I think they're six and five and the Jets are seven and four and they hold down the last playoff spot. Now all they'd have to do is tie the Jets.

Yeah. And they would get that spot. And I do believe that they will. There will be an opportunity for the Patriots to tie the Jets because the Jets next few games are pretty difficult. But the rest of the schedule for the Patriots is a problem. And I think the bigger problem for the Patriots is their offense is just. Yeah, that's. And there's a lot of that going around in the NFL, by the way, points are down by like three points a game per team.

That's that's a pretty big number. It's been a crazy season. It's been like I said before, it's been it's gotten better of late, but it still isn't.

It hasn't been a. It's not been a red wall for for the NFL and really only have to look at other teams like the the Packers, right? Or the Buccaneers.

Buccaneers are right now in a playoff spot at five and six. They are. Just want to say that out loud.

I want to say that it's real. One more thing about the the Bills and the Patriots. And this is from Greg Cosell who works for NFL Films. And you see him a lot on TV and podcasts. And if you follow football people on social media, you will often see Greg Cosell videos circulated because he is a very tape oriented analyst for especially the quarterback position. And here's what Cosell had to say.

And this is on the Ross Tucker podcast. Here's what he had to say about the Bills and their offense. I think we've become a little enamored with the fact that Allen is so special as a talent that we lose sight of the fact that this team does not have a real good O-line. They don't have a consistent run game, which they're trying to develop. And really, they have one real good receiver and then a bunch of other guys. So, you know, I think the sense is that, oh, this is a super talented offense. It's not a super talented offense. And it's built around Josh Allen being special every single game.

And that's hard to play that way. It is. When he is special, they're probably the best team.

Yeah. But he has to be, he has to do crazy things. He has to be Superman. He does.

And when he's not Superman, they are vulnerable and they have lost three times. They are not. Right now, the Miami Dolphins lead the AFC East. Wow. Yeah.

The Miami Dolphins lead the AFC East. Peloton's best offer of the season is here. Get up to $600 off Peloton Bike, Bike Plus, or Tread packages.

Choose the package that's right for you with accessories like our cycling shoes, a heart rate band, non-slip grip dumbbells, and more. If you've been looking for a sign to join Peloton, this offer gives you everything you need to get going. This limited time offer ends December 6th. Visit 1peloton.com to learn more. All access membership separate. Offer ends December 6th, 2022. Excludes Bike, Bike Plus, and Tread Basics. See additional terms at 1peloton.com.