REShow: Hour 2

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Our two of this Tuesday edition, Rich Eisen Show Dan Schwartzman in for Rich today and tomorrow, by the way, as well. A lot of NFL talk hour one. Do want to get into a little college football talk. It's kind of the weird time in college football because, you know, you're between the end of the regular season and conference championship games to getting to the, you know, through the the bad bowl games that no one really seems to care about. And then you start getting to the really good bowl games, right? Like the national championship games, things like that.

That's fun. That's when it gets really good. So like starting tomorrow, you start to have more decent teams playing. Then, of course, you get to the, you know, the really good games coming up this weekend. You get the college football playoff, semi-final games coming up Saturday. And then, of course, Monday, January 9th is the national championship game. So I love college football.

I got to love it when I spent a year and a half, one of my first jobs in this business, down in Huntsville, Alabama. And it was 2004. I got to go to every home and away game except the Hawaii trip with Alabama. And those weren't good Alabama teams. That was Mike Shula, Brody Croyle. That was those teams. A couple of talented players, D'Amico Ryan's guys like that.

But overall, they just weren't really that good. But when you get to hang out on a Saturday at the quad in Tuscaloosa, you go to the stadium, you see 95, 100,000 crazy Bama fans. Al the elephant, they make the elephant noises. You go to LSU for a night game. And, you know, they bring out the tiger in the cage and the cheerleaders riding on top where you go to Fayetteville and you sit there for an Arkansas game and they're going, whoopig suey. And you're like, what the heck's whoopig suey? And then you figure it out. And they tell you, calling the hogs.

And then you're like, wow, this is amazing. Traditions. Knoxville, Tennessee, great to see them being good again, because that's a heck of a fan base.

Neyland Stadium's humongous. You need good football happening there. You get the drift. And I've always argued with a lot of my friends, I like Saturdays more than Sundays, which means I like college football more than I like the NFL. And I've always liked more wide open offenses. I'm not much of a, you know, seven to three defensive gem. I can't appreciate those types of matchups, but overall I'm more of a guy that wants to shoot a, you know, a high scoring shootout type of game. That's what I like.

Give me 49-42 back and forth, couple of defensive stops here and there, but I like offense. Can't hate me for that. So what happens is, you know, when you travel the college football circuit, and even if you were a college football fan beforehand, after you've traveled the circuit, it makes you a passionate college football fan. I went from a fan to a passionate fan. I went from somebody that enjoyed watching college football to somebody who needed to watch college football. To have to explain to girlfriends and then the wife, hey, it's Saturday, noon kickoff, I want to watch this. And then after that you have other good games pretty much all day long.

Now I have to give and take a little bit, so it's like, okay, you know, you want to go out for a little, let's go out. So you miss a little bit of the action, but, you know, as a single guy from noon, you're pretty much watching football all the way to midnight, unless you want to go out at night, and then you kind of cut it off at seven o'clock, get ready, head out at eight o'clock. I get it.

You get the drift. So I've always argued Saturdays are better than Sundays, so I'm a huge college football fan. I just kind of hate how long it takes from the end of the regular season slash conference championship games to getting to the meat and potatoes of the bowl games, right?

I went to Mid-American Conference School, a high university, so I can watch action on a Tuesday. I can enjoy a bowl game here and there about teams that I may care a little bit about, but there's too many bowl games to begin with anyway, right? There's just too many games. What is it, like 41 bowl games and pretty much 30 of them you don't care about? No offense to the teams playing. I understand for them it's a big deal and great for the kids to be able to play some postseason football. They get to travel to the Bahamas for the Bahama Bowl. They can travel to places like Fenway Park for the Wasabi Bowl. They can go play in the Pinchwright Bowl at Yankee Stadium. That's something to tell the grandkids about years from now. I get it, and I'm happy they have that opportunity, but as a college football fan, I really don't care. Bottom line, I'll be honest with you, I just don't care, and it's just too long of a waiting period, but it's kind of become more fun because you have this transfer portal nonsense right now.

We didn't have this until a couple years ago, right? Guys becoming free agent in college football. How crazy is that? Yeah, I'm not happy with my playing time.

I think I'm going to, well, I guess I'll just transfer now. I mean, think about the insanity of that. Like, literally, think about the insanity of that. Like, all right, I was a five-star recruit. I didn't play enough. I think I'm gonna go elsewhere for next season and play there. You can actually now do that, and big-time, you know, big-time guys who were huge recruits are actually doing that now.

Like, you have guys that were highly recruited, top guys that are just leaving where they are after one or two years because they're not happy with the playing time, and they are going elsewhere already, and they have to just suit up and play. I don't like it because, to a point, I think it's become the Wild West, right? It's too much. Try to follow these guys where they're going. You try to, you know, it's hard to now be able to do so, and it does get to a point where you say to yourself, this is outrageous. This is out of control. This has to be stopped.

Things have to stop, right? But on the other hand, it's kind of cool in the sense of, think about what this means for your team. You legitimately go from being a team that's a few players away to addressing those concerns in one off-season, not through recruiting of high school kids where it's a crap shoot, and you don't know if this kid's going to be any good, to bringing in guys from D1 programs that were, for one, high recruits, and two, who can step in immediately and contribute, like immediately.

Like, put up huge numbers. I mean, the Bilitnikov winner just a year ago transfers from Pitt to USC. How many times have you seen a guy who is an award winner leave one school and go to another school, right? It doesn't happen. But the transfer portal has allowed that to happen. Not the biggest fan of this happening, again, because I think it makes life that much more difficult for head coaches, not that I should feel sorry for a head coach, okay? Let's get that out of the way.

I should not feel sorry for a head coach. These guys are paid millions of dollars, and if they want to leave, they can just leave whenever they want. And I think that's got to be changed, too, right?

Like, I think that's got to be regulated to a point. Like, if these players before this transfer portal, they were tied to a school because they had committed to a school, they couldn't leave just when they wanted to leave. That's now obviously changed at the transfer portal, but these coaches have always been able to leave. Yeah, you have buyouts, but what's a buyout? You know, these schools don't care. I mean, you know, you got these boosters pumping in tens of millions of dollars. They don't care about a buyout.

It means nothing to them. Oh, so you're saying we have to pay this guy, you know, $12 million to get him out of that school to come to our school? Fine. So be it. Let's do it.

What's money? That's legitimately what's happened. As crazy as that sounds, that's legitimately what has happened here. And again, we can sit here and talk about, is it right? Is it wrong? And I do think it's wrong, but if the coach has the opportunity, the player should as well.

Dan Schwartzman in for Rich Eisen, The Rich Eisen Show on a Tuesday talking some college football. And now you have like a thousand guys in there, and I saw a statistic. I don't know if you saw this on Twitter, but I saw a statistic where the percentage of student athletes who enter the transfer portal, who actually find a new home, is like 40% or something like that. So then kids fall through the cracks, right? And a kid may think he's got a better opportunity somewhere else, and before you know it, he doesn't have an opportunity, and his college career may be over, and he's stuck somewhere in no man's land where he can't go back to where he was because they may be like, well, you wanted to leave.

You put your name in the portal. We don't want you now. Goodbye. Good riddance. And he's got no home to go to.

So maybe this has to be right. Look, you would think a college kid at 18, 19, 20, 21 would be able to make an educated decision on their own to where they have to live with the consequences of what they decide to do. But on the other hand, they are young kids still who think that they're the best player in college football, and why wouldn't another school want them, right? Like all these kids think they're the best. Very few kids think they're not good enough. Somebody else has to make that decision for them and tell them because they're not looking at it through proper glasses. So it gets to a point where you just say to yourself, look, man, this kid has to understand that maybe entering the transfer portal is not right for him. So there has to be more regulation.

It clearly has to be more regulated. I think Texas A&M has like 24 kids in the portal right now. And I know they had a tough season, and maybe they're thinking Jimbo Fisher's not going to survive there much longer, which sounds ridiculous because he's got so much money left on that contract he originally signed just a few years back. How are you supposed to recruit and put together a roster if you're a college coach when you have like 24 players in limbo and you're not sure they're coming back or if they're leaving?

So you might think my wide receiver core looks pretty good right now, but then three of the guys leave and you're going, wait a minute, I didn't address this because I thought I had all these guys. I don't sympathize with coaches, but I do understand that this could be a tough predicament. And while I used to think that NFL coaches, if given the opportunity, would rather be in the college ranks because you seem to have more job security in college football than you do in the NFL, and sure x's and o's are half the game in college, while in the NFL it's pretty much the whole game, in college you also have to be a recruiter, right?

You got to sit in kids' living rooms, you got to eat the food the parents make you, and you have to sell your school and yourself to these kids, and that's not the easiest thing in the world. And maybe sometimes you have to figure out deals to get them to come to your school that may be under the table and probably not exactly legal, but whatever it takes, you got to do because you want to win football games and keep your job. But again, job security used to be a bit more in college football. You used to get five years to prove yourself, and if you did, great, you get that long-term deal.

If not, well, then you're gone. But you had five years to do it, that doesn't exist anymore. But I think with what's happening now with college football and transfer portals, if you're a college coach and you have the opportunity to jump to the NFL, you make that jump. Your job was hard enough with recruiting and then x's and o's, but now it's recruiting x's and o's and playing the game of the portal, keeping guys happy where you are and trying to explain to them, look, the guy in front of you who's going to be a junior is most likely a future NFL first round pick.

Just be patient for one year, practice hard, you'll get into games here and there, and next year you're the guy at that position, rather than the guy saying, well, I don't want to sit another year, I'm leaving. So now you have to sit there trying to convince guys that you once convinced to come play for you to now stay. That's not easy.

That's a lot. That's exhausting, frankly. I wouldn't want to do it. So maybe you say, you know what, I'm going to the NFL. I'm not dealing with this nonsense.

I'm not dealing with this nonsense. And I think for these guys like Nick Saban, which is hilarious because Saban never was a fan of the portal, but now he's learned how to utilize the portal to incredible lengths. I mean, Jamison Williams is a guy that he got from Ohio State, became an All-American and a first round pick. You know, Gibbs, the all-purpose back for them this year, who was an All-American, was a guy that left Georgia Tech, came there.

Now he gets a guy, CJ Dipper from Maryland. He is transferring to Alabama. They beat out Ohio State to get him. Last year, he's at 6'5", just a sophomore, he's got a couple years of eligibility left.

He caught 30 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns. You put him in Alabama and watch him become an NFL first round talent. They lose their tight end, who's entering the NFL draft, and you bring in another guy who they feel is good enough to play at Alabama.

What the heck? Forget bringing in high school kids and wondering if they can pan out in college. You bring out a guy who's pretty productive in college and you say, we're putting him in a better situation, better talent around and better coaching, and he's gonna thrive. So Saban, who used to not like the portal, is now utilizing the portal to his advantage. And he's losing guys here and there as well, but what does he care when every year he's having number one, number two, number three recruiting classes and addressing needs. He's got some offensive linemen that are in the portal. What does he care?

He's got guys ready to fill their roles left and right, no problem. But are we gonna see the end of this Wild West scenario that we are witnessing in college football? Is there an end to this or is this gonna continue? Will there be more regulation? Also, the NILs seem to be blown up in the faces of colleges and athletes.

You're reading stories where promised NIL deals aren't happening, boosters aren't making payments, whatever it may be. Are we gonna see more of a regulation when it comes to that? Does the NCAA even have the teeth to want to deal with that scenario? That's a very, very interesting topic. We're gonna address it with Chris Venini. He covers college football for the athletic. He will break it all down for us next and tell us, will this scenario be changing sometime soon?

Because I think personally it needs to change because it has gotten out of control. All right, find the latest and greatest audio entertainment on Audible. It's got everything you want to hear, including The Rich Eisen Show.

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Hopefully a better 2023 than 2022. Will there be college football changes, the transfer portal, NILs, things like that? Chris Venini covers college football for the athletic, joining us. And first off, Chris, happy holidays to you and the family. And of course, happy new year as well coming up.

Absolutely. Same to you. Thanks for having me. Thank you, Chris.

I want to get into this transfer portal because I'm intrigued by it, but sometimes I'm disgusted by it with so many names and guys changing teams left and right. What, you got JT Daniels going to be playing for his fourth college? I believe it is in five years. Is this something that needs to be regulated, Chris? Or do you think, hey, let it continue the way it is? College sports is in this weird middle ground right now.

I don't think this is going to be the future. What it is right now. We had so many changes happen all at once from the transfer portal to NIL to waivers on transfers.

It all kind of coalesced at once. And so now you've got kind of free agency every year for guys. And it was even worse a year ago when you had players leaving the portal in the middle of the season or late in the spring, or even in the summer. Now it's been a little bit more regulated. You've got transfer portal windows, got a 45 day period at the end of the season, another period at the end of spring practice. Those are the only times you can go in the portal, but college football is in this weird spot where I don't know if it's a professional model.

I don't know if it's employees. I don't know what it's going to be, but it's not going to be this because I don't think anybody really likes what it is right now. And I think in a few years, uh, perhaps some major changes in 2023, things will start to make it a little bit more sense. What's funny to me is guys like Nick Saban, obviously was not a fan when it first happened, but look what he's done the last few years of this with Jamison Williams, Jamir Gibbs, he brings in the tight end for Maryland this year. Is that a case of a coach who maybe, uh, has kind of embraced it to a point because he understands how, how much value there is to this? I mean, look, I said a year ago, I said, Alabama in the era of the transfer portal is never going to have a hole on its roster again, because you can instantly find these quick fixes. And who doesn't want to play for Alabama with how often those guys go to the NFL. It's an easy sell now, Alabama didn't have a good year. This year, it turns out they had a lot more holes than I think a lot of us thought, uh, in which case is the reverse of the portal where yes, Alabama can pick these guys. He's really good players from other schools that they can add, but they're also losing depth. They're losing guys on the backend, younger guys who maybe aren't going to, uh, develop in that program and fill some spots.

So the transfer portal, I always like to say it's a two-way street. You can have the top programs ad guys, but there's guys going in the other direction too. There's a lot more going in the other direction, uh, Texas, and I'm losing guys.

There's power five guys going down a group of five, a lot more than the reverse. And, you know, Chris, the other aspect of this is obviously the NILs playing a role in, you know, these student athletes deciding to transfer, not to transfer as well. And you're now starting to read more horror stories of the NILs payments, not being made, things like that, Chris, what's the future of NILs and does the NCAA have enough power or even the stomach to kind of attack this and try to figure out a better system where you're still obviously allowing kids to profit from their name, image and likeness, but not to the point where apparently guys are getting ripped off. Well, that was always going to be the concern as soon as this went into effect a year ago. And if we weren't going to see the results for a few years down the line, you were going to have collective promise kids money. And in a few years that money may not be either or kids may sign bad contracts that they didn't know what they were signing. And suddenly they're on the hook for things that they didn't know that has been a legitimate major concern for a lot of people in college sports about stuff like this. And frankly, it's just, it's going to take a few years of trial and error, figure out what works, what doesn't, Hey, that school doesn't pay the money that they say they're going to pay. Don't go there, you know, or this school quietly has a lot more money than they're letting out. That's a good place to go.

It was good. It's always going to take a few years for the market to kind of find itself. And I think you're seeing that now, or even a year ago, a lot of the money was put into the high school kids and it was like, well, wait a minute, what about all the kids on campus?

What about all the really good players you have? Shouldn't they get some of that money as well? And now you're seeing a lot of that money used to keep guys on the roster, keep them from transferring. So it's kind of with each year, you kind of figure out what works and what doesn't, and it's going to work itself out. But again, kind of in a weird middle ground right now for college sports. How is life working out in Boulder, Colorado so far for Deion Sanders in terms of recruiting and in terms of transfer portals and, and bringing in talent, has he made a immediate huge impact yet?

Or are we still at a kind of a weight? I know he brought guys from Jackson state, including Travis Hunter and his own son, who's a pretty good prospect as well, but is it a wait and see attitude or has he put them on the map pretty much? He is dramatically increasing the talent there.

It's probably going to take a little bit of time for that to kind of manifest. I don't think they're going to probably win nine or 10 games next year, but not only are the players he's adding with Jackson state, but he's adding other really talented transfers. He signed a running back, I think out of high school who was going to go to Notre Dame. He is very, very good at acquiring talent. He again, signed the number one recruit in the class of 2022 to Jackson state flipped him from Florida state. And now that kid Travis Hunter, the defensive back wide receiver is coming to Colorado. So I can't tell you if it's going to work out or not in Colorado ultimately, but look, we're talking about Colorado football and I don't know the last time Colorado football talked about on this show and Deion Sanders connects with the kids. I know, I know none of them were alive to watch him play, but he has an innate ability to connect with the youth of today and they want to play for him. And you're seeing that in the short amount of time that he's been there.

Chris Venini covers college football for the athletic joining us here on the rich Eisen show, Dan in Dan Schwartzman in for rich eyes. And on this Tuesday that said, look, you know, he had an abundance of talent in a, obviously in a lesser division of college football. And I think talent itself could win you games there. But when you're talking pack 10 or a pack 12, you're talking, you know, power five conference football, it's not just going to be having the most talent. You gotta be able to coach it, right?

We've seen, you know, a will must champ. We've seen Ron Zook guys who could go and recruit anybody, but they couldn't win with those recruits is Deion. And I didn't, I didn't watch enough Jackson state football to be honest with you, but is Deion in terms of X's and O's strong enough to where he will get this talent and he will hopefully be able to coach him up to be a serious contender to win the conference and potentially play for national championship in three to five years.

Yeah. The people who have been with him have said that he's really kind of a CEO type of coach. He lets the coordinators do their jobs. He lets the coaches do that kind of stuff. He's not in their column plays and doing stuff like that.

And he's, he's kind of held that executive role pretty well. And I think, look, Colorado opens next season at TCU, you know, who just made the playoff, you know, they got Nebraska in a week too. You've got a conference games with USC, Oregon, Utah, UCLA, Oregon state. Like it's a very tough schedule next year in a very good conference.

So again, I don't, I don't think necessarily we'll see the results in week in year one, but I think by year two, year three, then you kind of get a sense of how things are going and you're right. This is a new environment. Not only is it playing against better teams that have talent that is equal or better to you, but there's also a lot more media requirements and stuff like that, that he brushed off when he was at Jackson state. So there's, he's going to have a lot more on his plate. He's not, he's not the big fish in a little pond anymore.

And now we'll have to see how he adapts to that. You know, it's interesting because I, I go on social media. I've, I've interviewed DM before I follow what he's done. I respect what he's done. And I thought it was big when he went to Jackson state and obviously brought attention to historic black colleges, but he was there two years and he now leaves and then takes the town with him. And I've read, you know, pros and cons people happy that he spent two years there kind of put a flashlight on historic black colleges and, you know, put a focus on them, but others saying, wait a minute, but you left after two years to take more money at Colorado.

I'm sure you've seen these debates as well. How do you view Dion and what he did there and his departure after just two years? I mean, I can tell you that I've talked to a lot of people at HBCUs over the last few years while he was there.

And it's really split there. There's a lot of people who think, Hey, he's brought a lot of attention and notoriety to this. We've now got HBCU, you know, all star games for NFL scouts and there's more stuff like that, but that wasn't all Dion. You know, a lot of the stuff, even in 2020, after George Floyd, you saw a lot more attention on HBCU schools.

ESPN has done a lot of stuff with them. That's not just Jackson state. And ultimately a lot of people that look when he has the effort, the first big opportunity he's going to leave. And that's kind of what happened.

Colorado is admittedly kind of a weird fit for Dion Sanders. So it's, I can't say it's good or bad or the other way. I think him, perhaps the on saying that he felt like he was maybe saving HBCUs or that if not for him, it would have not got as much attention.

I think that's a bit much. Um, but it is good and bad. I can't say one way or the other. I just know there's a very, very split group in the HBCU community and the fact that he went 0-2 in the celebration bowl, losing the black national championship twice.

Um, some people were happy about that in the community, I'll say. You know, Chris, it's interesting because I was surprised he took the Colorado job. I thought if he stayed at Jackson state a couple more years, he'd obviously bring in some four star, maybe a couple more five stars.

Who knows? Because as you said, he resonates with the kids probably would have, you know, even losing two national championship games. He still would have won a ton of games there and maybe had better opportunities.

I thought Colorado is not the hill to die on and here's why. From what I understand in talking to former Colorado players, unless things have changed in the last few years, their facilities aren't that good, right? I mean, so many of these colleges have professional facilities.

They've spent hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade them. So your limitations are there in terms of recruiting to Colorado past his name recognition. If he doesn't win a bunch of games, I don't care who he is.

Kids aren't going to go there. Should he have waited for a bigger job than Colorado that maybe afforded him a better opportunity for early success? I think the fact that he publicly put out there that he'd been offered the job by Colorado and then didn't actually accept it for another week kind of tells you that he was probably hoping something bigger would have come along and it didn't. And I think that's an important thing to remember is that Colorado, you know, he interviewed for some other jobs. He's had talks with other schools, but Colorado was obviously the biggest school to offer him a job. And Colorado is a very, very difficult job. The facilities are actually pretty good, but it's in a tough conference. And you're just, there's not a natural recruiting base when you're in Denver and ultimately, you know, as much as sports writers may love Boulder, you know, that's not exactly what, um, you know, young black kids in the South necessarily want to experience.

So it would be, it's been hard to recruit there. Dion actually fills that gap because people want to come play for him. So he is going to get people who ultimately wouldn't go to Colorado. Otherwise, uh, the, the question now is, is, you know, if he does have the success in two, three years, does he leave for yet another job, which I think is, is, is possible. So, you know, he played it publicly. Like he always does. And it's an interesting fit of all of all the jobs in the power five. It's one of the most, uh, unusual fits.

I think beyond Sanders in Boulder. Do you think I want to get away from Dion? I want to go to another coach and Jimbo Fisher. I like Jim, but I've always thought he's fun to talk to. He'll talk to anybody.

Frankly. Uh, we once had him on at the NFL draft and Phil, you had to tell him, listen, Jimbo, a commercial break is ending. You got to go, you know, he he'll just sit there and chat with you, but it has not worked out well at Texas A&M regardless of the recruits he's brought in.

That offense has been stagnant. A bunch of guys looking to transfer out of there, if not for that contract and the buyout amount, which is massive to get them out of college station, would he lose his job there? If not for the contract, if it didn't cost more than $80 million to fire him right now, uh, very possibly, you know, look, they had a good 2020. They finished in the top five, but it's been a mess ever since.

And it turned out the COVID year was kind of a unique year for a lot of people. And, you know, it's been three weeks or so since he fired his offense coordinator almost a month and they haven't replaced it yet. They still don't have an offensive coordinator and, and, you know, Jimbo is, has been the offensive coordinator.

He's the one who runs it calls to plays. He has said he's willing to give that up to somebody, but we kind of have to see it to believe it. And at this point, we're still waiting on who that could, uh, could be. So it's, it's a, it's a tenuous time where you mentioned before they've had a lot of guys going to the transfer portal, but it is important to know that this year and next year, there's an unlimited, there's no limit on the recruiting classes. You can sign, you could sign 35 kids to your class, uh, if you want this year.

So the Texanum can fill those spots. They haven't lost much of the 2022 recruiting class, the one that was ranked number one. So I still think there's hope and optimism, but nothing's going to be fixed if you don't figure out the quarterback situation.

And if you don't figure out just how to run the offense. And I think both of those are still questions right now, joined by Chris Venini covers cost football for the athletic here on the rich eyes and show a last thing, Chris, uh, we got the comfortable playoff semi-finals coming up, uh, this weekend and you have Ohio state and Georgia. That's the four seed versus the one seed. You of course have, uh, the second semifinal game as well, which is, you know, Michigan and, uh, who am I missing here? I've lost my mind. TCU. Exactly.

I've literally lost my mind. Uh, the favorites to you and those two games to meet the national championship are. I think it's a pretty clear one and two Georgia and Michigan. And it's kind of a unique setup because, you know, if you ask her to be smart, who we'd rather play Ohio state or TCU, if he gave him truth serum, he'd probably say TCU because you know, the talent that Ohio state has, even if they haven't put it all together necessarily, even if they've had some ugly performances, that's impossible.

First-round pick at quarterback, you know, they've got good wide receivers and talent up and down the board. They've got Ohio state, uh, Michigan's got TCU. Ultimately, I think Georgia. Uh, is able to move the ball, get some explosive plays against Ohio state. Ohio state can't keep up. I think Michigan's defense really stops. TCU is often clogs up the trenches pressures, max dug in a lot and they score enough to win. So I think we get Georgia, Michigan, a rematch of last year's semi-final. Last thing, you know, I had this conversation with another buddy of mine who's a big cost football fan. And we're like, why don't other coaches take the blueprint of a Nick Saban or a Jim Harbaugh, which is, you know, load up your out of conference schedule.

Yeah. You have that one tough team. Alabama always has a tough opener against, uh, another good power five conference team in a neutral site, but then they play a bunch of cupcakes, right? Like why don't other schools kind of take this blueprint of going five, you know, whatever it is out of conference. Cause you're playing a very easy schedule before you hit your conference schedule. And it gives you a better chance to be number one, number two, undefeated when it counts. You know, you see some of these like Notre Dame for instance, obviously doesn't have a conference. They have pretty good out of conference schedules against tough teams and multiple ones.

Right. I mean, I never understood why other teams or as many teams are not doing that Chris, where it's like, all right, play a tough team and then just play a bunch of nobodies. Well, it's interesting because Michigan was supposed to play UCLA this year and then our conference, but I think Michigan, I think canceled it for, for some reason. And, uh, that would have been a heck of a game.

Michigan may not be that beer if that happened. Uh, so the thing is with the expanded playoff coming now, you're going to see this a lot more. We've got Texas, Ohio state series. We've got an Alabama, Ohio state series, Georgia, and Florida are playing some big games.

So we're going to get more of that. And ultimately schools need it because selling tickets for the not big games is becoming tough. You know, attendance has been going down for like 15 straight years in college football and the schools are realizing, Hey, we got to schedule some good games. We got to schedule some better games to make fans want to come to the stadium because it's so easy to watch a game at home. You couple that with, Hey, we can afford a loss or two, and we'll still make the playoff moving forward. You're going to get a lot more of those Texas, Alabama games that we got this year.

We're going to get a lot more of those moving forward. And ultimately I think that'll be good for everybody involved. You'll get more people at the stadium, more exciting games in the non-conference play.

So at this point, yeah, having the cupcakes, if you beat them all and not tripping up, it does help you. But I think, you know, a couple of years away from the expanded playoff, that's not going to be a concern anymore. We're just going to get more good games.

Maybe a hard ball realize you say it was going to be better than people thought. That's why. So let's not play this game. No, I'm just kidding. I doubt that's the reason why Chris Venini covers college football for the athletic Chris, happy new year. Thanks for coming on.

Yep. Thanks for having me. Great stuff from Chris Venini there from the athletic guy. I always wonder how to lengthy conversation with a good buddy of mine who it's like, you know, he's a big Michigan fan. I'm an Alabama fan. It's like, just play schedules like they play. I mean, you know, just look at who they've played and you're a big enough school where, you know, just because you played an easy schedule for the most part, it's not going to kill you, right? Because you play in a good conference. So in the end, your conference schedule is going to win out. I mean, look at, you know, look what, you know, Alabama played. I mean, they played what Utah state, they played Texas. That was a close one. University of Louisiana Monroe. They played Austin Peay, right?

I mean, come on, this is a joke. It's a terrible schedule, but you're going to win those games. And because you win those games, you're already undefeated when you talk about your, you know, your, your in-conference schedule. Now, Austin Peay was the homecoming game, I believe. So obviously a little bit different, but then you look at Michigan, Michigan's playing, uh, Colorado state, Hawaii, Yukon, right?

I mean, what is that? Colorado state, Hawaii and Yukon and they win these games 51 to 7, 56 to 10, 59 to nothing. Of course, they outscored them like 170 almost to 17. And you get off to a 3-0 start to start your season because you're playing a bunch of nobodies. And then you hit your conference schedule. By the way, it's not like Michigan played a really difficult schedule. They played two teams that were ranked in the top, the top 25 when they played that was Penn state. And that was Ohio state. Now Michigan deserves to be where they are because they dominated those two games. They dominated Penn state, uh, you know, at home and they dominated Ohio state at the horseshoe right there.

And that's good enough to get you in. So I'm not begrudging what Michigan has done this season, especially in conference, but you know, they're out of conference schedule is an absolute joke and it worked. It absolutely worked and rightfully so. I mean, you know, you should be beating up on three teams like that, but schedule away. And I know schedules are done like six, seven years ago, but like Colorado state, Hawaii, those weren't exactly teams that you thought would be powerhouses down the road. You kind of knew that those would be games that you could win and frankly win fairly easily. I would think, and they did. It wasn't very difficult for them to do so.

And they did. I want to look at these national championship games, the semi-final matchups coming up this weekend, as well as of course, a little early preview of the championship game as well. Dan Schwartzman in for rich eyes and on a Tuesday right here, it is the rich eyes and show. Rich eyes and show on a Tuesday, Dan Schwartzman in for rich today and tomorrow. Don't forget, you can listen to the NFL in the NFL app on westwoodonesports.com via Westwood One Station streams, or by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports.

If it's the NFL it's on Westwood One. You know, it's funny, like when I have Alexa at home in most of my rooms and what's really funny is if you're talking about Alexa, a lot of times you actually have to whisper her name because if you don't, Alexa will just kind of open up. You know, Laura, you have Alexa?

I do. She freaks me out half the day. But like if you try, like I have a 12 year old too, so like if I'm talking to her about Alexa, I have to like be like, end Alexa. Because if you mention her name, she like wakes up and starts talking, you know?

It's like, oh my goodness, I did not want that to happen, but it's happening, you know? It's always the strangest thing for me that, that you have to like watch what you see in your own house because you have a machine listening to you. Kind of freaky if you think about it, right? Yeah, and did you know that she records conversations? I heard that. Is that true? It is true. I saw a story that a girlfriend caught her boyfriend cheating that way. What?

It's interesting, huh? Well, she recorded it. Alexa recorded the conversation? Yeah, there's in the app, you know, because you have, you have the Alexa app, you go in there, there's a certain setting where you can go in here because when you talk to her, whatever, when she wakes up, she records part of that. And somehow this guy started recording and he was talking to another female and the girl went into her Alexa app and saw the recordings. That is really freaky.

Yeah, so it's weird. Can you turn that feature off? Not that I have that problem, but like, do you, is there like a, like, I don't, you know, I don't need Alexa recording me for God knows what reason, right? Is there like a way to turn this off or like, that's kind of part of the, what you've agreed to by having her in your house?

I'm sure there is. And I wanted to see if that was true. So I went into my app and yeah, my boyfriend and I were having a conversation and there we were, I didn't believe it either. It's, it's crazy.

Actually, I should probably turn that feature off if there is a way to do it. It's weird. You could really, that is scary. So when they say everything you're doing is being recorded and listened to, they are actually not kidding. No, be careful. That's kind of, that's not good.

Maybe I need to start to tighten up my Alexa here. Thank you for that information because now I know to be careful about that. Wow. That is, that is dangerous. Yeah.

No thanks. I will go into my settings. Oh, I'll tell you a funny story about that. So I have a one-year-old or soon to be one-year-old as well. And I was watching TV with her a couple of days ago and I know she probably shouldn't be watching TV, but I had to kind of keep her occupied for a little bit. And I look away for a second and she's playing with the remote in her hand. I was fine with that. Next thing I know, I see like a movie starting. I'm like, ah, she turned to the premium channel.

Right. And I press info and it's, it's Halloween kills, you know, with Mike Meyers. I'm like, yeah, it's not an appropriate movie, you know? And then I like, for some reason I check my statement and I see a charge from Verizon for a movie rental. And I go, I didn't watch any movies. And I realized, because I went into like my, you know, the settings and stuff, I realized my one-year-old had bought this movie. So I actually had to call Verizon and explain to them, listen, I had no intention of watching Halloween kills.

I'm not really, I like horror movies, but not to that point. And I was like, I'm not kidding. My one-year-old bought this movie. Can I somehow get this off? And they actually didn't.

They like took it off. They refunded my money and stuff, but apparently you can now also set a password of sorts so that your one-year-old just pressing random buttons on the remote, cause she doesn't know what she's doing, can buy a movie for $16.35. So Laura, definitely do that. I don't think you have any kids running around right now, but definitely before you do, make sure you set yourself a little pass or else you'll be getting $16.35 charges for movies that you have not bought. Well, thank you. My goddaughter loves to work the remote.

So I will definitely do that. Yes, please. Are you kidding me? And by the way, she bought it twice.

There were two charges for it. I'm like, really? Really? Can you buy something good? And then I can like watch it and tell the wife I didn't mean to buy it.

She bought it, but you know, as long as we have it, like, you know, I might as well watch it, you know, but no Halloween kills is what she watched. All right. We have the national championship semi-final games coming up in college football playoffs this weekend. TCU, Michigan, Ohio state, Georgia. I like these. I actually love the college football playoffs. I really do. Like I know some people out there don't like it and they're going to expand it.

I'm okay with them expanding it. You know, more big games to me is never a bad thing, but I like these matchups, you know, and I'll admit, I watched a lot of Ohio state. I watched a lot of Michigan. I watched a lot of Georgia, didn't watch a ton of TCU, but I love what Dykes has done there. And, you know, Dugan's a stud and there's so much talent on that TCU team. And as a year rolled on, I remember it's like, okay, at some point they're going to lose.

They're not for real. They'll come back down to earth. And here we are the third seat playing Michigan in Arizona. Michigan's the better team, but are we underestimating TCU? Michigan's defense is tremendous and I do think they can bottle up TCU and Dugan. I do believe they can do so, but would it surprise anybody if TCU won that game? Honestly speaking, would it surprise anybody if they won that game? Like the expectation is not that they're going to win, right? Like you don't think they're going to win that game because they're not going to be favored to win that game.

You know, Michigan is the big 10 power. They're the team that comes in with more hype and you just automatically believe to yourself that they're going to win. But they've kind of, and I mean, well, by they, I mean TCU has kind of bucked the trend this year and they've surprised people, right? Like week in and week out, a lot of people expected that to be the week where they're going to lose their first game and that was going to be it and then somebody else would step in. But as the weeks went by, they continued to win games and here they are. So would it surprise anybody if TCU walked out with a win and they're going to be playing in the national championship game against either Georgia or Ohio state?

It wouldn't surprise me. It really wouldn't. Again, I wouldn't pick that if I was wagering, which I don't, but if I was, I would go with Michigan because I do believe overall they are the more talented team. And I do believe in the end, when you're talking about well-coached teams and both TCU and Michigan are well-coached teams, in the end, I believe the, you know, the talent level of both teams will be the difference. And again, I think Michigan just has a little bit more talent, especially on defense where they are really, really good. And then you have Georgia and you have Ohio state and the luster or the sheen came off of Ohio state in that loss at home to Michigan. I get it, but there is so much talent on Ohio state, especially offensively. They have what three potential first round picks at wide receiver. They have a quarterback that's a top five, top 10 pick.

That's also another great game, but I do believe Georgia, Michigan do meet in the national championship game. All right, NBA are the nets for real. The Lakers, what's their deal. I want to get a little NBA talk coming up next hour three of the rich eyes and show Dan Schwartzman on a Tuesday holiday week, filling in for rich on the rich eyes and show how wrestling really works and how you get the ratings Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson explain on 83 weeks. You're either growing or you're dying. I think it'd be hard to recreate the kind of growth that WCW experienced between 95 and 98. This audio should be growing. The character should be coming more and they're not everybody's gradually losing audience. I think people will say, well, but they, you know, 15% ahead of where they were last year, but there's variables there. Let's see where we're at year from now. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.