College Football Playoffs and Michigan vs Washington

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Visit our website for details. First of all, we ask, we have and we continue to ask more and more and more and more of the players without really providing them with a reason why it's a good idea. Especially when we're talking about players who believe that they have professional careers ahead of them playing.

It's really hard to convince them that there's anything you can do for them that is worth the risk of playing a game that doesn't really matter. And I understand the argument of, you know, a game in November when you're not playing for a conference championship, you're not in a race or anything like that. I could understand the argument that those games don't matter either.

Yeah, I get it. And I don't think I would be that surprised if we got to a point where certain players were opting out of games like that. But I think that that would speak ill of players and damage their draft possibilities. I don't think that skipping out on a bowl game, especially one that carries no meaning. I don't believe that skipping out on a bowl game would do that. It didn't hurt Christian McCaffrey to skip out on what was at the Sun Bowl.

I think it was Stanford and Carolina in that game. It didn't hurt him then. And I don't think that something like that will hurt players skipping out on bowl games.

It does bother me how many fans are so mad at this. Because the players do not owe you a thing. I don't care how much NIL money you pump into the system. They do not owe you anything. They've given you the season in some cases.

They don't owe you anything. To me, the only fix for a bowl for the bowl system. If we're talking about it in terms of how do you get players to play in these bowls isn't even an incentive. A monetary incentive from the school or from the bowl. It's really to make the bowls the beginning of the season as opposed to the end of the season. Let's start there with Chip Patterson, CBSSports.com, Cover 3 Podcast. Do you have a fix for the bowl system? Less bowls.

How are we going to get to that? Yeah, we're not. My general thought is, from the perspective, I did not play college football so I did not experience this. But I've covered the sport for a long time and I work with a lot of former college football players. And the mentality of, and I'll tell you why less bowls in a second, but the bowl system is positive for college football players with this perspective. If you have a good season and you are a good team, then you get invited to a bowl.

And the bowl game is, to me, much more about everything that happens before the game kicks off than it is about the actual result of the game, which is an exhibition. It is about going somewhere that is touristy. It is about going there with your teammates that you have been in an absolute grind with. It is about doing all the fun things associated with the bowls and, you know, when you go to Charlotte, you get to drive a race car.

When you go to El Paso, you try not to wander into Juarez. You know, there are some things, highs and lows, but everyone talks about, you know, just being able to have all that downtime around the holidays at the end of the season and it being a positive experience. In the year 2000... And so that meant that if you were invited to a bowl game, you were somewhere near among the top 50 teams in the FBS subdivision. We have 41 bowls now and that changes the map entirely where you can even be among all 133 FBS teams subpar. You can be, if we rank all the teams in the football bowl subdivision, you can be below the 50% line and still get invited.

There are other pieces to this, which of course I think I mostly point to the transfer portal windows and the early signing period that are more calendar related. But if the thing that has made bowls special for teams and players that enjoy it is that it is a reward for a good season, then I'm actually not on the move it to week zero campaign, which I was like, sounds like you are my colleague, Danny Cannella is on that. I understand why that would change some of the opt-outs, but I still think a bowl game is an exhibition at the end of what this, to me, most important, a trip that is a reward for playing a good football season.

Here's the thing, Chip. I am not necessarily a proponent of moving the bowl season to the beginning of the year. I think it probably needs a hybrid look because for the most part, if we want to reward, for the most part, the teams, right, for the seasons that they had, there are a number of teams and certainly the Florida State example is extreme. What was the, like 30 some odd players who were on their roster, like in the game against Louisville, weren't for the bowl game. So that is an extreme.

It would be foolish to do anything. Florida State's also, hey, look, I'm just real quick. Florida State's an outlier roster.

Mike Norvell's got 50 players he's gotten from the transfer portal over the last two years. What is like, they haven't spent four years in that program. They also had seniors who came back when they could have gone pro like Jared verse, who were only coming back to try to compete for a championship. Like the Florida State example actually revealed what kind of a house of cards that Seminoles roster was. I'm not talking about whether they deserved or didn't deserve, uh, you know, a spot football playoff, but the reason why Mike Norvell had to build through the portal is that he has not been a good high school recruiter.

And that's been tough because Florida State was in the doldrums, but they just got up to being in the upper crust. And so that got exposed when all of a sudden they had to go to their backups because their backups were so below the championship standards that Mike Norvell had to go get all those players from the portal. It's funny because somebody sent me George's opt-outs to like, uh, it's the same. I'm like, it ain't the same. You could pretend it's the same, but so George's third stringers, and I use just use that term or we're better obviously than Florida State's third stringers. It was not the same one.

What is it program that has been building? And they have like legitimate superstar level players pushing out the others who are going to the NFL Florida state, but it was a silly conversation. Uh, Danny, uh, your friend, Danny canal, my friend, Danny canal, I guess to, uh, put out on social media as people were losing their minds over the, the score line of Georgia, Florida state.

And like, look, we knew this was going to happen. It was always going to happen because of the opt-outs of Florida state's roster. You can't draw any conclusions, but here's my, my take about, um, how maybe a hybrid system because there are a level of games. There are a level of teams. Maybe we're talking about for the most part group of five bowl games, uh, or maybe it's some of the lesser, the lower level, uh, you know, power five bowl games that those games can be played in the, in December. But anything that seems major ish, if they're not going to be folded into part of the playoff, and I don't think they are, maybe we put those as week zero games and have those match-ups, which were certain would certainly be a lot better, uh, than some of the stuff that is passed off in week zero. So you're looking at the examples of like the music city goal. Yeah.

Pinstripe bowl, Fenway bowl. Yeah. That like, uh, that those games, um, you know, they, they all of a sudden become your week zero or week one kickoff special. Again, I don't even know if that's, if that's tenable, I do know the way we currently do it really isn't, especially with, with the mindset of people, uh, placing way too much importance on these games. The, um, again, it was just, uh, this conversation just continues to draw me back to, you know, we, we really didn't used to have this many ball games.

And so the idea that you were playing in it and that you were playing in it with your teammates was a little bit different. And, you know, we might have, like, if we moved the transfer portal window, then kids couldn't get into school for the upcoming semester to be able to be there for spring practice. So we'll, we can't move the transfer portal window. Um, you know, it's, uh, it's, I I'm willing to wait until we really get into the, uh, the college football playoff expansion because the first round of the college football playoff start on December 20th, which is about the same time that the bowl season normally starts. And if the other bowl games are just filler content to get you hyped up for the next playoff game. Well, then I think that that is going to those playoff games will be able to scratch the itch of fans that they don't feel as let down by the product of those other bowl games, as opposed to the current calendar, which has you waiting for a month. And if none of those games in between the conference championship game and the actual playoff games feel competitive and they all feel watered down and thin, then you're going to be a little bit more upset about it. We get into the expanded playoff era where you've got the first round on campus games on December 20th, then you are going to be jacked up for that.

Then more than happy to watch the Wasabi Fenway Bowl as your, uh, as your drunk pizza at the end of the night, two days later, it is a great undercard. Uh, if you think about it, all right, let me, uh, let's, let's talk, talk actual football. Um, first of all, with, with everything that happened leading up and I said yesterday, two things can be true at the same time. Florida State could have gotten screwed and I believe they got screwed. They should have been one of the four teams in the playoff. But at the same time, for the last time, the last time in the four-team era, college football had two compelling, I don't know if great, but certainly two compelling national semifinals. We hadn't had that. We'd always had one blowout at least. And we actually had two games.

We won it over time. The other that ended up going down in the final play, what was your overall takeaway from, uh, what the new year's day, the whole semifinal experience? Yeah, so, um, I, I think that they were both incredible theater. Uh, I think that for Alabama, Michigan, there was outstanding coaching from both of those sides. Michigan was doing things that it had not done all season long. I thought that Alabama put in the perfect adjustments to that, to be able to put themselves in a position that they were leading by a touchdown in the fourth quarter with a chance to go to the national championship.

And then just some, some downright incredible stuff. Uh, even from, you know, JJ McCarthy and Blake Corum in Michigan to be able to get back into that game and to be able to even get it to overtime. So when I'm looking at what was not just compelling, but I do think really great semifinals when you consider the teams and the stakes. The ultimate takeaway for me is that in a college football season where there was no monster where there was no juggernaut, the thin margin between even the very best teams in the country was revealed in two playoffs.

I think it was in the first playoff semifinals that were decided on the very last play the game. So you know, we haven't seen, uh, you know, one team trounced through everybody because all season long, we haven't had one team that had separated itself that much from the rest of the group. So I'm excited. You know that we have a 14 to no conference champion against the 14 to no conference champion for the national championship on Monday night, and, uh, and I'm if Washington wins.

I think that not only will it break the blue chip ratio. I also think Washington is a team that we will never, ever see again. They are a combination of, uh, the COVID pandemic.

You know, the COVID pandemic, you know, the COVID pandemic portal. You know, they have 66 years, seniors and 50 years seniors all over that depth chart. And so how do you combat elite talent?

You do it with elite experience and elite coaching. So Washington is kind of a comment of a team. It would be cool if they win the national championship. And then if Michigan gets it done, um, they have been the story since the very beginning of the year, and it would be kind of a remarkable. You know what there is, there's some real 1998 last dance, um, vibes with this Michigan team.

I think they're going to have 15 players go to the NFL draft. I think their head coach is going to be off to the NFL. And I think that pretty much everybody knows that, um, you know, this is it for this run of Michigan football.

The program has been forever changed by Jim Harbaugh and the work of those juniors and seniors, but they're trying to go out by winning the title. Yeah, I think I like Washington in the game. Um, and I like Washington because I think their offense is significantly better than Michigan's offense. And I know Michigan's defense is significantly better than Washington's defense. And I think Washington kind of proved that at the end of the game against Texas.

But I think the game, college game is about offense more than it's about defense these days. And I just like Washington. It was funny to me to hear all the, how come Michael Pennix wasn't a high? Well, didn't get more love for the Heisman as though people didn't look at the vote and realize that he was second. And it was a relatively close vote, even though Jayden Daniels was the Heisman Trophy winner. I mean, I said Michael Pennix got my vote.

I voted him number one. Um, but their offense is awesome. Is the running back healthy? Because I think of the running back as healthy Washington wins. Yeah, I don't think so. Um, so after the game, I was talking to Washington's players and they were saying he was in the locker room.

He was in good spirits. Kaitlyn DeBoer said they hadn't had an update at that point. Ryan Grubb, their offensive coordinator, says the x rays are negative. But this is a foot injury that Dylan Johnson has been dealing with for a while.

Right. My expectation is that he'll dress and he'll go out there for warm up. But I do not think they are going to go into this game, especially against the Michigan defensive front that is loaded up with Jenkins and Grant and Mason Graham and Josiah Stewart. Like I just don't think that they are going to think hand in the ball to Dylan Johnson.

25 times is going to be the best way for them to win. So maybe it's gamesmanship. Maybe it's just allowing Dylan Johnson to be a part of this with, um, you know, his brothers. Like again, like I love I loved being around this Washington team for about five days and being able to see the connection of this group, which really adopted Kaitlyn DeBoer. Um, you know, they when Kaitlyn DeBoer came in, a lot of those guys were in his office and they were like, Hey, I'm not going to promise you I'm not going to transfer and Kaitlyn DeBoer said, Just give me a chance. And they were so impressed by what DeBoer and his staff made up a former, you know, Sioux Falls and AIA assistance and guys from Idaho and Boise State.

They've got a vibe, man. Like I Okay. Round two. Name something that's not boring.

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Chumba casino.com. Believe any of the following results. I would believe a Washington win. I would believe a Michigan win. I would believe a Michigan blowout. I don't know if I would believe a Washington blowout just because I do think with Michigan's ground game pace of play that it would be very difficult for Washington to totally run away with this. These are keeping got too cute in the sugar bowl. They were running the ball very effectively, and then they abandoned the run, and I think it might have cost the Longhorns shot to play in the national championship game.

So yeah, I would. I think Washington plus four and a half is a very fun ticket to be sitting on if you're going into it in a game that I do think Washington could win. But ultimately, if you look at CBS sports.com, I believe that the result will be the same as each of the last four national championship games, which is that the favored team goes on to win it.

I've got Washington outright, but that's that's just me real quick. Gene Chisick's departure from UNC. I mean, was he really that good at Carolina?

Because I don't think so. Wait, was it really that good really that bad? If he's gone, then it's because he was that bad, right? I mean, they mutually agreed to part ways.

I think that Gene Chisick got them from really bad to bad on defense. Well, I think that this is, um to me a move that is a signal. Um maybe it connects with the locker room.

Maybe it doesn't. I imagine it connects with very powerful people who support the North Carolina football program who would like to see some accountability for a defense that was poor and a team that fell apart down the stretch of the season. The in part because of their inability to get stopped. And I think that that's the story that I'm sort of cooking right now is that the reason why we have seen these late season collapses is that while that defense has four star players. And blue chip prospects and some really good top end guys. I don't know how good their real depth is. And so you lean so heavily on those top line guys who are pretty good.

You know, they come up with some big stops in North Carolina with their hair on fire. You know, they come up with some big stops that are needed in some of those early wins that get you off to a good start in September and October. But you get back into those later stages of the year. Couple players start to get a little bit nicked up and you really got to rely on your depth. And I just like I don't know if a coaching change is going to like shit. What might just be a structural roster problem or a coaching problem, which might be that you're not relying on that depth early in the season so that your guys are fresh later. Um, I, you know, I've spent a lot of time around college football playoff programs.

The ones who know that they're going to be in the college football playoff. They have a 14 15 game mentality to how they do their substitutions and their rotations and how they treat minor injuries early in the year. It's something that a lot of teams can't afford to do because they don't have talented backup.

So what can you do either through the portal recruiting or development to fix that fact? Because again, just a working theory. I think that North Carolina at the very top line of its defense has enough players that you're like they should be better.

But the fact of the matter is, it's the twos and the threes that either aren't good enough or aren't good enough yet that they are the ones who are causing the problems that that lead to these late season collapses. Chip Patterson, always awesome. Happy New Year, my friend. I'll talk to you very soon. I'll talk to you next week even. Happy New Year.

Sounds good. You'll be well. You got a chip Patterson here on the Adam Gold show with the lucky land slides. You can get lucky just about anywhere. This is your captain speaking. We've got clear runway and the weather's fine, but we're just going to circle up here a while and get lucky.

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