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Average premium cost based on Progressive Home data from 2025. Product and prices may vary by state. Welcome to the program. Always an honor to keep the chair warm for the Hall of Famer, Lauren. I am going to produce on the air.
You got to loosen up that shot, pal. Thanks very much. If you are watching on the simulcast, no, we don't have to make it the Odyssey, but we can split the difference. And with the vanity underway, welcome to the program. I am feeling good.
I am well rested. I have five hours of content. I'm going to try to cram into our three hours together. But as always, especially this week when the phone lines have been on fire, let's see if you're going to lower your standards and pick up the phone to call yours truly, one eight hundred six three six eight six eight six. XO is an option.
BW Weber Weber with two Bs. AT. E.P. Friday, let's get that going. If you know my style, or if you're saying who is this man and why is he producing a simulcast, if you're listening on the radio, we try our best to maximize the interaction.
Twenty past the hour or so every hour, so start. Getting those thoughts crystallized in your mind. The entire XR four ti is here. Tom will curate your interaction, print it with a very big font, and hand it to a host who has vision problems but is too vain to get glasses. Thursday night football.
Is something that should go away. It will not. But I will augment on a big word Friday that argument based on the takeaways of a game that was almost unwatchable, but somehow, some way, Denver gets it done again because that's what they do after all. And it's the Jim Rome Show presented by FanDuel. Dating back to the start of last year, Bo Nix.
If you're a Bo lever, you're going to throw this stat right in my face: fifteen and two now in one-score games. We've got the fallout from the end, at least for now, of the Dodgers dynasty. And yes, they have had a dynastic run. Do not jump on me on social media saying, "Well, it's got to be a threepeat." Throw in what happened in 2020 with the lockout, but it all came crashing down last night. Milwaukee, the best team in all of baseball, so it wasn't a surprise.
Even though it was probably more one-sided than most people thought, I'm going to talk a lot of college football coming up in 40 minutes. We'll get you set for the latest game of the year, top five showdown in Bloomington, Ohio State and Indiana, and we'll frame it this way: When we go to the 2014 playoff next year, will the game like this even matter? And I'm talking a little. NBA, yeah, I said it.
Now just just a smidge, and we'll do it coming up in hour number two, and we will compare and contrast now the decline of the Dodgers dynasty to perhaps the rise of the Knickerbockers stacking Larry O'Brien trophies. Let's jump right in. I have a business decision to make. Oh, I want to talk baseball. Oh, I want to make it feel like it's 1982 all over again.
Over the course of the next three hours, I'm going to name. Of course, I didn't Google this and write it down in front of me. I'm going to name off the top of my head as many members of Harvey Wallbangers from back in the day. The Sud Series against the Cardinals won seven games, but. NFL is king, and I do not want to blow the opportunity to come back during the holidays.
So, if you sat through that game last night, and I am not zigging when the world is zagging. The NFL has become largely an unwatchable product. Understanding, we watch because we're addicted to football. But between all the flags and the construct of Thursday Night Football, what did you expect if you watched Seattle versus San Francisco on Sunday when you saw Sam Darnold get sacked five times? What did you expect on a short week on the road with no semblance of a ground game?
Was going to happen to Sam last night against the most ferocious front seven when it comes to piling up sacks in all of football? Another five sacks. What did you think was going to happen if I told you coming into the game that Sam Darnold was going to throw it more than fifty times? Probably a lot of turnovers because you are what you consistently do, and since I gave you the pro. Bowenix propaganda, and I'm Brian Weber.
In for Jim, hop aboard at one eight hundred six three six eight six eight six. Your interaction coming up now in less than fifteen minutes, as I am being Dan Quinn esque with my clock management. Sam Darnold. Going back to the start of last year, if you throw in his penchant for untimely fumbles, which really was his major flaw at USC, and the grisly interceptions, has accounted individually for more turnovers than any one in all of football. Two more last night that effectively cost Seattle the game after they rallied from a first half that I don't even know how I got through watching that.
Understanding if you're a Denver fan, you're saying scoreboard and. I know what studio I'm in. Look up at it, and you can make the argument that Denver's had the most rigorous schedule in all of football. I didn't break it down game by game, but think about who they've already played and who their losses have come to—a pair of undefeated teams in the 49ers and the Chiefs—and despite the fact that they did nothing, absolutely nothing offensively in the entire second half. And I'm not being hyperbolic more than I normally am.
Total of 168 yards on offense. Last time Denver won a football game with less than a buck 75 of total yardage, 1983. It's all about the early 80s here. Kajagugu ain't walking through that door.
So. Do not try to tell me if you pick up the telephone at one eight hundred six three six eight six eight six that Bo Nix is the ultimate finalizer. He's the Mariano Rivera football. He closes like nobody else. They won that game in spite of Bo Nix, who tried to give it away.
Along with the coaching malpractice of Sean Payton, and I know Jim's a big fan, so I'll tread lightly. What in the world was that play calling after Darnold made the donation of the pick that you knew was coming inside the two-minute warning? After they clawed and scratched their way back and came up with that nifty two-point conversion in the back of the end zone, Nick's tried to throw it directly into the hands of a Seattle. Oncoming defender. I don't know why he's throwing the football in that moment because the whole goal is to run clock.
But that gets us to overtime, and I hate to be the cynical, but because I have never fully bought into Sam Darnold, and he'll always have that ring. It just felt inevitable. Another pick was coming that closed the game.
So, in fairness. Coming in, we knew Seattle under two losses, and that Washington loss looks worse and worse by the week. Had committed seven turnovers in that pair of defeats.
Well, last night, two Darnold picks, lost fumble, and the doink on the field goal. You can't have that kind of unforced error, and you can't ask Sam to do this much. I understand JSN is the best offensive weapon in terms of playmakers, but when the whole goal. After making the business decision not to pay Kenneth Walker III, that if you want Nuggets, Uncle Brian had way too much free time this morning. I get up at four, and I forgot the show is now noon Pacific time.
Combine all of the alleged running backs for Seattle, understanding that they're still waiting for the first round pick to Jaren Price to get healthy, and we haven't seen friend of the program Jack Charbonnet. Five hundred and thirty-nine rushing yards is the combined total in a half dozen games. That's six in plain English for the collection of running backs. Kenneth Walker the third individually has two fewer rushing yards, five thirty-seven, and he did it in four games.
So. If you go back to last year's blueprint, it was minimize Sam's risk reward ratio, have him throw it under thirty times, ride the running game with the Super Bowl MVP. That Seattle just didn't want to pay, and lean on that defense. The defense showed up last night. That has been consistent, even though.
Like Denver, they're dealing with some injuries, and Denver's secondary virtually wiped out because of health concerns heading into that game. But if this is going to be the new normal until they get healthy or until they make a move, what do you think is going to happen to Seattle with a murderous schedule continuing? Because coming up, they'll take on the Chiefs, who should beat up the hapless Bolts to remain undefeated, and then they'll take on the Bears when you. Have a real good handle that at that point Caleb Williams will put the hamstring injury behind him.
So I'm not burying the reigning champs. I'm saying though, it's looking dire to start the year. And a reminder: both these teams only lost three games all of last year. For Denver, it came because of their defense, and in large measure, in spite of Bonics. And I don't understand, other than those of you who think that wins and losses are a QB metric, and you give the winning quarterback all the props for lining up under center on the team that scored the most points.
How do you explain to me the regression of Bonics? I'm not talking about starting this year, coming back from the injury. I'm talking about from his rookie season. With quality weapons around him like Waddle, and I know he got dinged up last night. Sean Payton is doing his best.
I don't think, as I said, I just completely crucified him for the play calling inside the two-minute warning of regulation after the Darnold interception. He ran it, morning through it. I think because he had no choice but to do so. Bo Nix looks lost out there. And coming up in the final hour of the program, we'll bring you some sound from Prime Video's post-game show.
I try my best to be transparent. I find Ryan Fitzpatrick to be annoying. I just think the bearded gimmick and taking off the shirt is a poor man's Pat McAfee. But he's trying to justify a coveted slot. Everybody wants to work Thursday night football for two reasons.
Amazon, last time I checked, no need for a GoFundMe. Secondly, you get your weekends off, so maybe somebody got in his ear, but he absolutely annihilated Bo Nix post game. We'll bring you that sound in the final hour. It was fair criticism because I don't know how anyone can back or come up with a reasonable argument that Bo Nix is even a serviceable quarterback these days. And I was listening yesterday, and I respect Ryan Harris immensely.
You know that guy is going to law school; very bright guy, Super Bowl champion. But when you call the Broncos preseason games and the check may have the Bronco insignia and obviously you have connections to the team. When I heard him say Bo Nix is a top five quarterback, what? What? What?
Tell me I'm wrong. Dissuade me of my notion. I'd like to hear Denver fan pick up the phone one eight hundred six three six eight six eight six because he is just a dude. Just a guy, Jag, not Jaffo, like Blue Thunder. What's your favorite Roy Scheider movie?
And you can't say Jaws. We will get back to the NFL coming up to kick off hour number two because I'm going to split the open. There are no rules. It's Webbergaden here, and sneaking a couple thoughts on the Dodgers with college football coming up now in 30 minutes.
So, if you didn't watch the game last night, and I can't blame you because it's not 1982, and there's a reason I keep throwing that out there. We'll pay that off momentarily. In addition to the Brewers finally getting back to the World Series, but. Other than delusional Dodger fans trying to tell us, because this show is based here in Southern California, that well, Doc Roberts might go out as a pinch runner and steal second base, and what do you know? It's the Red Sox coming back again, and.
The Dodgers weren't coming back.
Now I thought they might at least salvage some dignity, especially when they finally got something out of Shohei Otani, and all of Dodger Nation was saying, "Friend of the program again." I will choose my words selectively. Dave Roberts and Dave is a nice guy. That's why he has the job. Do you think Dave Roberts decided independently to bat Shohei Otani leadoff last night? It's a rhetorical question.
It's Andrew Friedman and his 27 analytics guys who are making the lineup decisions and pitching changes, but we can't get behind the curtain to find that out because they don't want to be upfront with you. Same thing with Cashman and the Yankees and Boone. We know the puppeteering's going on, but we want to create the illusion that the field manager is more than a middle manager in the bureaucratic org chart of sports. But whoever made that decision was looking like a genius when Otani finally came alive, first home run since August 18th. I will remind you that was a ball that was placed on a tee.
Milwaukee was prepared to lose that game. You don't have a bullpen game on the cusp of going to the World Series for the first time in an eon unless you have. The fortitude and the knowledge that you have an insurmountable lead. Still, the Dodgers couldn't even take that gift—six unanswered runs—and it's a good story for baseball. I'll tell you why straight ahead.
In addition to this fatwa between big markets and small markets, that's going to lead us to the labor war. And if you don't like baseball, don't worry about it because after the World Series, we're not having games played until June. First, at a minimum, but it is good when you play 162 for now. Even though ownership is dangling, hey, take a salary cap. We'll have Mondays off.
We'll go back to 154. All the records are meaningless now.
So I'm going to stop pretending like I care, like I did 40 years ago. But if you play all of these damn games, the regular season should matter, even with the janky playoff format.
So good for Milwaukee. If you didn't watch the game, you didn't have to. The better team won in dominant fashion. One hundred and three wins, most in all of baseball. Best home record, winning percentage tied with the Rays, and the best run differential in the game.
So it's not a surprise that they won. If you paid any attention, I know we don't, because we've zoned out on baseball. They came to Chavez Ravine in August and took three out of four from the Dodgers, who are. I am not going to give credence to the. There, I like the swag of the Padres ownership group.
You throw out the dinosaur tag; look pretty factual when you have a bunch of dudes over thirty against a young Milwaukee team that is getting better day by day, learning how to win in high leverage situations. And it's better for baseball to have other teams in the mix, although. As we wind down in this marathon mega monologue, ooh, alliteration on a Friday. Prior to the rise of the Dodgers, last couple years we had 16 different champions in 22 years in baseball. You know what that's called?
NFL style parity. But no, no, we need a salary cap. We have to blow up the sport because the owners who have the money don't want to spend it or. Those who do have the money and the willingness to spend, the big payroll teams want to put on a straight jacket like this thing that I'm poured into, like the dreaded second apron in the NBA. I'm Brian Weber, covering a lot of ground.
Let's Warner Affiliates. We might go a fourth or fifth hour. I'm just that popular here on Westwood One Sports, so we'll just take it to YouTube, or I'll just go out in a street corner and continue to talk to myself. One eight hundred six three six eight six eight six. Your interaction coming up.
We're closing in now, twenty minutes away from the college football conversation. I will actually talk about a game that matters. Get into the implications of it, and then we'll get the. Harang about the expansion to a 2014 playoff that is coming up straight ahead. I'm gonna dare you to keep listening.
We're gonna talk just a little bit more baseball. I foreshadowed the perspective as a lockout is looming. Does MLB even have an argument to make that they have some sort of competitive balance crisis now that the dreaded Dodgers have been shown the door? Just getting warmed up on a jam-packed Friday. I'm Brian Weber in for Jim on the Jim Rome Show.
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Brian Weber back with you. Moving quickly on a Friday, but the goal is to allow your voice to be heard. One eight hundred six three six eight six eight six. Interaction momentarily. Gonna squeeze in a little bit more baseball, getting you set for the excitement of a lockout.
Now we'll try to be more grounded than that. And then just over fifteen minutes, we make the move to college football. Another big one in the Big Ten. Although when you have eight. 18 teams now.
It's hard not to have the right permutation that's going to get you. Marquee matchup, rematch of last year's Big Ten title game: Ohio State at Indiana. A few years ago, a loss in our family was a reminder that life can be truly unpredictable. That's why having life insurance became priority for my family. Protecting your loved ones with life insurance is much easier than you think.
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You know what varies? Forcing a segue in there, the quality of chat.
Now it should be pretty clear that in addition, in addition to my addiction when it comes to the jungle, I don't have much of a life. You can probably track me on social media, and I was. I rarely do the well, Jim. As always, filled with comedic stylings, but the way he just was like De Niro in the Untouchables with a bat, going team, team, and just whacking chat. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday was outstanding content.
I am going to be magnanimous on a big word Friday and go right to the chat, huh? Just because I'm the only one who'll take on the mighty NFL doesn't mean I'm a total contrarian. What do we got here? Arm and armadillo, international style. B.
Dubs love to see it, and of course contradicts me. No more big words. My head is about to explode. Sincerely, the Big Head. Although James and I agree on a lot of fronts.
Although his Shanahan obsession is very reminiscent of single white female back in the day, moving on, I will double up with my man Armadillo. Sam Darnold seemed reckless with the football, especially in the fourth. Both quarterbacks were below not good. Trivia: When I got whacked at NFL Network, the only person who called me was Charlie Casserly. Because I was vibing with a seventy-year-old man, that's more information than you need.
We keep moving. CF nineteen seventy. Hey, Brewers, did you kill Matt Tober? Moving along, Richard Torres. NFL is king, but watching the Dodger funeral, priceless.
We will hit a little bit of X interaction because I keep belaboring the point that there is two bees. Weber with two bees. Michael Pignator, any sign today from Matthew in Los Angeles? You lost Mattober privileges with that sweep, Matt. You and I have been making love on the radio going back to when I worked for the now defunct Beast 980 here in Southern California.
Red from Riverside. I don't want to give away your other gimmick, but you know you're always welcome, even with a fill-in host. Dino in Vegas. Not reading that. Hey Alvin.
I'm told Dino sucks. Is that still the case? I know you're not a blank jukebox, but I'm only here every few months and we play the hits, and we'll leave it at the music fest. An homage to my friend Scottie Farrell. I worked with Scott in the mid '90s.
KMBr. That guy was a revolutionary force in the medium. I can't believe I am reading this, but I am trying to placate as many of you as I can. Webster, tell Mama Cass to hold our ham sandwiches. Sign, Shoey Chokedani, Yoshi Yama Meatball, Puky Bets.
Freedentures Freeman. That's actually slightly clever, especially given the ancient Median age of the roster. V in the fee, War Webbergaden allowing bump smack. War bums using.
Okay, we're not talking prophylactics. Holy crap! And with that. Did I mention the Brewers are going back to the World Series for the first time since 1982? You might be wondering, hey, loud guy, whoever you are, over enunciating, what were you doing in 1982?
Funny you should ask. I believe I'll be like a guest on the Tonight Show who's promoting a movie, and they'd always turn to Johnny. I think we have a clip. They would ask incredulously, "Like, no, I think we have a clip. I believe, as I've already been producing and directing to start the show, we might have some photographic evidence of what I was doing in 1982." When I bring this up, not only to prove that in fact is my real hair, do you want me to go through?
Who was in my locker in 1982 when I owned a grammar school in New Rochelle, New York? New Rochelle, the fictional hometown of the Dick Van Dyke Show. You have the greatness of Mookie Wilson, Hubie Brooks, and Lee Mazzilli.
Now, yes, you can nitpick. I should pick a side, Yankees or Mets, but I went to such a low-budget school, I shared a locker. And the best compromise we could come up with was I got two Mets up top, he got a Yankee. You know what you don't see there? Any football pictures, and Phil Simms was finding his way.
The Giants were still garbage early eighties, but slowly on the ascendancy. When Parcells would come in, Jets were relevant. Go the next year, eighty three, they get to the AFC title game, and Don Shula wouldn't put the tarp out, so it was a quagmire at the Orange Bowl. Ken O'Brien ain't walking through that door. I bring this up not only to be more vain, although it really is pretty self-destructive to stare at yourself when you were 13 years old.
There was a time, folks.
Now I was going to say not too long ago, but when you get old, you forget. That's 40 years ago, and Lauren, thank you. We can lose that, but I might bring that hair back. Thank you very much, and I don't want to see any more photos of me. That was Scorsese esque.
The Irishman coming up in the fourth hour of the program.
Well, I could have used that De Niro de aging as I went from vintage Ronald McDonald hair to the current toupee I'm renting. There was a time. When October was still dominated by baseball, and I'm not telling you, let's jump in the hot tub time machine. And the reason I'm going to talk a little NBA, but I'll do it in the construct that links it to the decline of the Dodgers dynasty. And yes, it is a dynastic run.
I am not going to parse things with you when I look in the chat after the show, which is always dangerous. Is There is room for more than football in our lives. I know why. If I had a full-time job, which is never going to happen again, good news is, sadly, folks, I don't need it.
So that's I'm not doing Bobby the Brain Heed, and I'm saying I have just enough financial latitude that I can do what I wanted to and I want to be here as much as possible. The point is this: if I had a full-time show again, I would not be seduced by the cult of talking all NFL all the time because it's just damn boring. Boring, and every other show does it. And the reason, perhaps, I am getting nostalgic about baseball beyond being a narcissist and wanting to look at a picture of myself from years ago, is unfortunately, as the sport has never been more compelling on the field. And the next change you are going to make is, and they're going to work on it if they have a fall league.
I think they will. Because I don't think necessarily things like the instructional league are battered by the impending lockout. They're going to make sure that, and you can read about it on your own time, but I'll try to do it pretty quickly. Outlining examples of outfielders being perfectly aligned—that's why it's so hard to get a hit now, because they just run these computer simulations through an algorithm, and it says, "Okay, when Mookie Betts is in the batter's box, you, Mister." Right fielder, stand here, and what do you know? Three times out of ten, the ball goes there.
They're going to effectively put a star like the star right here for Jim Rome. In a spot in the outfield, and say you have to be within two yards of that all the time. Why to get more hits? And that sounds gimmicky, but I'm in favor of any change in baseball that is justifiable, like the pitch clock, which changed everything, like ABS, like effectively outlawing the shift. My point is, the game has never been better to watch.
And if we have this straw man argument that somehow I'm not even going to bash the Dodgers, throw the Mets in there, the Yankees, you know I'm talking about the haves and have-nots have ruined the game. I know the audience has always changed, especially with the Phil and Hack. Before the Dodgers run recently, 16 different World Series champions over the last 22 years. If you think money can guarantee you anything, go back to last year's World Series where the Dodgers were down three-two, needed miraculous. Circumstances to win in Toronto, and if that's the case, why have the Mets done nothing?
Since four years after I was standing in front of that locker when they won it all in 1986, explain to me how the Yankees are stacking World Series trophies, those hunks of metal. They haven't won anything since 2009, and we're going to have a World Series with the scrappy Milwaukee Brewers, who are up to number 19 in the overall scheme of payroll, taking on either the Rays, who are the poster boys of doing more with less, or the Guardians, who somehow. Have the lowest payroll in the American League. I had to confirm this one because Cleveland ain't a small market. They're number twenty-nine in all of baseball.
Why? Because they're owned by the Dolan family, not crazy Jimmy Dolan, his uncle. Because there was so much money lying in the streets in cable TV, which gave me a career a million years ago, and he refuses to spend it. And you're telling me as we wind down here, if your pro salary cap, which I think I've just refuted, it doesn't buy you anything. Yes, it buys you depth, but baseball is random.
It's flipping a coin 162 times. You're just trying to increase the probability and the odds in your favor. But but if you believe that a salary cap, coupled with a salary floor, is going to change everything. Also, now convince me that the pirates are going to spend the money on the right players, or the Marlins, or pick your small market team that has done nothing for twenty years because ownership is cheap, and they're making money through depreciation and accounting tricks and putting all of the revenue sharing in their pockets.
So there's your baseball sermon. Baseball fever, catch it. As the show goes along, I will do my best to come up with people from the '82 Brewers that you might not think about, because we can just do Robin Yount, Paul Molitor all day long. Don money for the win. Alvin, take me home tonight.
I know you're not a jukebox. Don Money was not related to Eddie Money, and Alvin's looking at me with other disdain. After Jim Rome, one eight hundred six three six eight six eight six. That ends the baseball portion of the program. Moving forward, nothing but football.
We will start hour number two, looking at the Sundays games, trying to find out is anybody any good in this league. And yes, I am anti Brock Purdy. Although I should change my tune, considering I'm filling in for Jim Rome. Coming up, we make the move to college football. Going to get you fully lined up for the top five showdown between Ohio State and Indiana.
But when we get to the 24 team playoff, as soon as next year, if ESPN is reporting it. They have a monopoly on the contract for now. It's going to happen. Will a game like that still have any meaning twelve months from now? A lot more to get to.
Appreciate the company on a busy Friday. I'm Brian Webber, and for Jim here on the Jim Rome Show. You're listening to the Jim Rome Show. Getting closer to the start of the second hour of the show. I do read the phone number beyond being a carnival barker because I want to invite you to pick up the phone.
In fact, we're going to take a phone call in just one moment. First, it bears repeating because of our great relationship with our friends at O'Reilly Auto Parts. It's an ATP Friday. We will pay this off coming up in the final hour of the program. You, the clones, get to ask me a question.
Sponsored by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Post your question at Jim Rome hashtag and ask the pros on X. Be listening later in the show, third hour. I could answer your question. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all your car care needs.
Get the parts and service you need fast from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. I want to get to the college football. We can do that concisely because I talk quickly enough. But it's also appropriate, especially on a Friday with a film host, to. Maximize interaction, and with that, we hit the phone lines.
Here is Steve in Nokal. Hey, Steve, you're on with Brian Weber. What's up? Hello, sir. Welcome to the jungle.
Not my first time. You've been paying attention, apparently. It's a big day in Nokal, you know, because the Dodgers got swept, and I just wanted to give a shout out to our boy Matt in L.A. Matt Tober. Is over, brother.
Now you can you can come up to NoCal and hang out with us and watch the Brewers take the World Series.
Okay, Matt. No big, no no bad feelings, no harm. I'm out. And do we get to hang up? That's always my favorite.
No, Alvin's too much of a pro. All right, the gauntlet has been thrown down, Matt. You know that I will make sure that we have equal time. I don't think the FCC cares about that anymore because there are no rules for anything concerning what's going on in media. We can make that happen in the next hour of the program, and you know how to get to the front of the line.
Tell them, "Red in Riverside called you," and we can go back. Geez, a decade ago when I was filling in on a station that did not last that long in Los Angeles, and let's just say it's a tough market. Tough when you have a startup scrappy mentality. College football is the second most popular entity to the NFL, and you could say, well, you're kind of getting into semantics there. We know football is king, but if you just look at the general ratings and the overall popularity, college football right there with the NFL, although.
Somehow, a lot of this gets really minutia-driven. College football ratings were down 11 percent in the month of September last month.
Some of that comes down to how the measurements are actually being achieved.
Now, with Nielsen, that is immensely boring. The real takeaway is, especially in the Big Ten, nobody plays anybody until they get to the conference slate of games, and you can understand why because theoretically, the Big Ten is this murder. Road to grind your way through, and oh, we have to play Ball State. We can't play an actual non-conference matchup, but again. I am chasing the windmills.
I understand the old days aren't coming back. That traditional rivalries have been killed, all in the name of a buck, and it's only going to get worse.
Now, here is my balancing act. I love college football more than the NFL. I was so lucky to be acclimated to it when I came west for college. If you can't tell, it's a balancing act. When I overenunciate, I'm called a clown.
When I use the New York voice, I am. I can't say words like orange in college football, so I got to thread that needle. But I grew up just outside New York City, where college football is a nonentity.
Now things have changed, probably with the technology thingy, and you can watch all these games on your phone. But when I was a kid, people cared about Notre Dame, especially the Irish Catholic army I grew up around with. Maybe Syracuse, episodically, now have had a nice run, and Penn State—three schools dominate. The region. Other than that, it's all about pro sports.
You come to the West Coast, and had I gone to say Vanderbilt, it would have been an even more immersive experience. But to show up here, loving sports and college football, had been my blind spot. Other than I could name the Four Horsemen a million years ago, if that still matters, Mister Inside, Mister Outside, and Army's dynasty in the '40s. College football Saturdays are the best: the pageantry, the heritage, the animosity. Towards your traditional hated rival, and the tonnage, and obviously, as Lauren has gotten looser, that's something I know a lot about.
Most of that is still intact, about sixty forty, and it's still a great way to spend your Saturday here on the West Coast. Game start at nine, and you can ride it deep, deep, deep, deep, deep to. I'm not saying Pac-12 after dark because I'm not acknowledging what that thing is and the fact that I understand. God bless Washington State and Oregon State. This is when I tell you, in 2002, I was exiled to Pullman for six months, had a buy.
Snow tires for the first time in my life. I understand what happened. You can't tell me a league the Texas State is the Pac twelve, but it's ball and we watch. The long winded way of saying this sport is almost perfect, but the powers that be continue to do their best to kill it because I don't know anybody. Who is clamoring for a 2014 playoff?
Other than the media entity, I'll tread lightly because I fill in elsewhere and want to make sure this doesn't get clipped. The media entity that currently, and I think in the future, will have a monopoly on the college football playoff rights, unless they farm it out because the games that they don't care about they push to Turner. That gets more complicated now with the Turner CBS merger. But and I point that out because we know first round matchups. In the current twelve-team format, are largely unwatchable.
What do you think the first round is going to look like when we get to twenty-four teams next year? And what happens to Ohio State versus Indiana when there are no stakes, and we're getting rid of? And it was hard for me to defend conference championship games, but at least they had meaning for seeding. When we kill those, and I'm I'm old enough to remember when they didn't exist, and I was fine with a college football world without them. But I understand why they're there.
But I'll take that and 12 teams versus this gobbly gook. If you're watching on the simulcast. And to put it in context of tomorrow's game, what kind of stakes are going to be involved when Indiana and Ohio State should they meet again? They won't because of the rotation. When you have this 18-team amalgamation, it's amazing we even get games that matter.
When you have to mix and match with Purdue and Rutgers, this game will have virtually no meaning a year from now. And you can argue it has no meaning now because theoretically both Ohio State and Indiana are locks. Although Indiana, if they lose badly tomorrow, could continue to have issues down the road. Because I'm just not that convinced they're that good.
Now I don't want to move away from preseason rankings. I understand they're largely arbitrary and irrelevant. But I like any reason to talk college football in August. And when the poll comes out, we can have a conversation. But if you've been Paying attention.
Speaking of playing, no one non-conference. They played absolutely no one. They took on Northwestern, vastly improved team. We know that Jim is all in, and you have Chip Kelly as the offensive coordinator now running the wing tee with David Braun coaching him up. They only beat Northwestern by six.
One at Nebraska by three. If you watch that game, you know the Cornhuskers controlled about seventy percent of that matchup.
So, how good is Indiana? I don't know. We'll find out tomorrow. The larger point is, the entire essence of college football was it had the most meaningful regular season in all of sports. I'm not asking to go back to the AP and the UPI voting and split national champions.
UPI, look it up; it's now defunct. Like most of my references, I'm not saying give it to the computers again with the BCS. Although, in retrospect, They got it right more often. They got it wrong, right when the goal was to get number one versus number two. But this monstrosity of a twenty-four team playoff, and I can do basic math.
I got the ratio. There is what one hundred and thirty Division One teams, so you can tell me it's still the smallest playoff field. I know we are dealing with professional athletes now, and I know the student athletes, the good ones, have always been getting paid under the table.
So amateurism was always a sham. I just don't want college football to be a mirror of the NFL, and I don't want it to become college basketball, which, since I'm spouting 1982. The NCAA regular season games mattered all much as as the NBA did. They would put Louisville versus Kentucky if they ever played on CBS, coming off an NFL game. And we know now, of course, they're going to seventy six teams.
That college basketball has become a one month sports. I don't want it to happen to college football, but you don't get a vote. I don't get a vote, and you don't fight city hall because we know what's coming as soon as next year. I am Brian Weber, opine. Trying not to be a prisoner of the past.
In fact, we'll be grounded in the moment to start the second hour of the program. Who do you actually believe in in the NFL? Is anybody any good? We'll tackle that straight ahead right here on the Jim Rome Show, the U.S.
Soccer Podcast. I'm your I'm host Megan Klingenberg, and I am super stoked to be joined by Daryl DK. Arguably, your most impressive quality cannot be measured. You're a guy who is the definition of grit. Injuries have ended plenty of careers, but instead, you decided yours would only be a chapter instead of the ending.
Welcome to the show, Daryl. Thank you so much. That's a good intro, right there. That's good. The U.S.
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