NFL Power Rankings Going Into Week 9

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That's B-O-M-B-A-S.com and use code EISEN at checkout. This is the Rich Eisen Show. In order to win a World Series game, you have to score a run. That is gone. It's a grand slam. Gone.

It's glaiber day. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, senior writer for the MMQB, Albert Breer. Coming up, Fox Sports college football analyst, Bruce Feldman. Actor and comedian, Kevin Pollak. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

That's right. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports in the athletic going to join us in studio. And then Kevin Pollak after him. Kevin's always got some great fun stories that light up our Instagram feed. No pressure.

844-204-rich number to dial, phone lines are lit. We were asking in the 50th anniversary of the rumble in the jungle in Kinshasa, Zaire. Which event would you, if you could choose one in the history of sport, would you want to go to the first marathon? Like way back in ancient Greece?

The first Olympics? Let's go for even further back. Let's go to like the gladiator events at the Coliseum.

Yeah, that might be a rough and tumble crowd. I don't know if I want to deal with that. You know what I mean? And plus, I gotta be specific on what time I go back because these times might not be safe for your boy.

You gotta be very careful how far back. Well, hold on a second. How about this one? Let's go to Dan in Austin, Texas. You're in the Rich Eisen Show. What's up, Dan? Hey, Rich. Love the show. Hello.

Thank you. My event would be the Jesse Owens Olympics. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. It would be dangerous for this guy right over here. Everybody would be able to attend. Hitler in attendance?

Nazis would be pretty fun. You know, that guy in the pink shirt? Without wearing an A, I might stand out in that crowd.

We both wore pink today, Rich. You're talking about Berlin, obviously the Berlin Olympics, right, Dan? That's correct. Yes, absolutely. No doubt.

That's a good one. Thanks for the call, Dan. Appreciate it.

Absolutely. Thank you, Rich. You got it. That's Dan in Austin. Dan, it's a real good one.

That's a very good one. Brandon in St. Louis. You're on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's take your call. What's up, Brandon? Hey, good morning, fellas.

What's up, Brandon? So mine's gonna be a little weird. So I was born and raised in Wisconsin in January.

Okay. So mine would be the Ice Bowl. Big Packers fan. What's that bane line from Dark Knight Rises? I was born in it.

Molded by it. The cold. So yeah, I would love that. Yeah, bring the soup. Bring the bouillon, right?

In a thermos. Does that mean, were you at the Tom Coughlin game where his face froze? No, no, I was not at that one.

Okay, very good. Brandon in St. Louis. By the way, when he said that he was born in Wisconsin in January, I'm like, boy, he sounds like a grown man for that. I was like, this past January? Nine months ago? He grew up there.

In a previous January. I was born in Wisconsin. I was like, we got the baby. I'm like, yeah, right. My God.

A fenster baby. Sounds like a grown ass man. Wow. That's the second time we mentioned that like five years ago. Let's go to Jeff in Pasadena, California. What's up, Jeff? Not the dog. You there, Jeff?

We prefer things that don't get our hands dirty. I don't think Jeff realizes he's on. I'm right here. I've got the greatest idea in the history of football.

You guys ready? We're going to take the magical power of the NFL Players Association and take the upper tier of college football, however you want to define it. I don't care. I'm an NFL guy, and you're going to put the NFL PA in charge of this top rank of college football and give them a chance to develop these players in a way. Remember one of Belichick's hates is I just wanted the rules to be the same. We're going to make the rules the same or we can get these guys super ready for the NFL. We don't need NFL Europe. We've already got it.

As you guys said, Albert Breer was great. Thank you. I appreciate it on his behalf. Do we lose him? He's asking what do we think about that?

Which is what? Like have a G League? Create a G League or something like that? Essentially, but it's also college football.

It's kind of both. We see college football the way it is. We put the NFL PA in charge of the upper echelon and make it a much smoother transition. Oh my goodness. But they can't figure out their own house right now, so the NFL PA is going to go walk in there and help. You know when people are hoarders and they can't clean their house, so they got to have somebody else come in and throw this stuff out?

Wasn't Marie Kondo? I just don't know if you're going to go to Greg Sankey and go, hey Greg, hear us out here with your multi-billion dollar business that you're running there in the Southeastern Conference or hey Tony Petitti, that multi-billion dollar business you're running in the Big Ten. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to come in. The NFL Players Association is not going to be in charge to figure your stuff out. It's going to be a college football playoff and then all the kids that don't have pro football grades, then what?

What do you do for them? You know what I mean? They go play in the Mountain West. Oh my goodness.

So all the kids that... Pack two. Thanks for the call, Jeff.

I like the pack two. I don't know what the answer is, but you shouldn't be seeing fourth overall picks in the draft suddenly, what now? A year and a half into his career, four games gets hurt or is it three games gets hurt last year, Anthony Richardson? Literally every game. And then he's out the rest of the year and then he comes back and then eight games in of up and down play, a couple games that he misses because he's hurt again. Now he's benched again and now he's sitting there and answering questions about what are you going to... Honestly, 22 year old kid thrust in this situation? It's why you don't let the owner decide who's starting week one, his rookie year. Also Rich Early, you mentioned about development, like what's the best development.

I think obviously, maybe not even obviously, the best development is time. It's just Baker Mayfield, number one pick. Where are we right now?

Now he's on a roll. It took how many years for him to get to this point? Jordan Love. Jordan Love, Sam Darnold. We asked Jared Goff, how many years do you think somebody should get a shot?

How many years does it take till you can actually develop as an NFL quarterback? He said six. Anthony Richardson was made available to the medium today and had this to say. Of course, everybody knows the news. I'm not starting this upcoming week. Of course, it hurts. As a competitor, definitely don't want to be told that you're not the guy anymore for the upcoming week, but it's all good.

I'm using this moment as an opportunity to grow and just learn from my mistakes. He's 22 years old. I think he'll be all right.

No, I think he'll be all right. Sure, you could say that, but last year was supposed to be the year he sits and watches and learns. Everybody there sings his praises. Whenever I go to the combine, anybody from the Colts organization, you mentioned his name and they light up, good kid, great sensibility, great desire to be great. I mean, it's all there.

Physical skillset, great. I mean, you look at his college career and he had one full year as a starter. And this is why, by the way, this is why the league in the lockout year of 2011 insisted on having some form of a rookie scale. Because in the old days, in the Jamarcus Russell days, the Peyton Manning days, I'm going to go with the different levels of success.

He might've got taken that high. Well, I'm just saying back in those days, you to choose somebody that high had to pay that player the most handsome and generationally enriching contract you've ever given to any player in the history of your franchise. That's the way it used to be. And the league's like, well, we need some time to figure out whether you should be generationally enriched.

So you've got to go through the crucible of that, actually proving it first. And now we're in a situation where, yeah, you have to prove it in order to be generationally enriched, but the standard of proving it is just have great regular seasons, make a playoffs, win one game in the playoffs, show that you've got some real great ability in terms of your physical prowess and your ability to lead and your ability to not get into trouble and be a great face forward athlete for the franchise. And you get $50 million a year now. And the number of people who are making 50 million plus who have not gotten to a championship game, I've lost track. In a weird way, Rich, you bring up the new CBA from back then, which set the rookie scale.

In a weird way, I think that has helped create the problem that we have now, because it makes it easier to get off of these guys because you're not paying them so much money. Even Jamarcus Russell started 36 games in college. So a lot of the guys back in those early days, they were three, four year college players who had a lot of playing experience that you were taking at the top of the draft and paying like Matthew Stafford, Sam Bradford. These guys played a lot of football.

Carson Palmer played a lot of football when they were taken at the top of the draft. So I guess it's your you better be careful taking somebody that is that has not played a lot. Yeah.

Buyer beware. C.J. Stroud played a lot. C.J. Stroud played a lot.

That's helpful. Didn't Bryce Young did too, right? Didn't he? Trubisky did not. He was behind Mac Jones. Trubisky did not. He did not play a lot.

Drake May played three years at UNC. Like, I don't know. Just throwing that out there. It's just seeing, you know, a 22 year old having to stand up there and go, you know, I've been benched and it's tough to hear, but I'll learn from it and trying to.

He said all the right things. Bryce Young, two years a starter. I wish there was some sort of through line that you could say why somebody successful and somebody is not. You just you just again in the NFL, if I'm an owner, I'm like, OK, so I draft somebody high. I don't really have any any option except I've got to throw them out there in the games that matter for everybody else and for me and for my coaching staff and for my general managers. There's no other development other than getting him out there in these games. And if he's not ready, I've got to bench him. And there's nothing else to do for him to do except sit around and learn while he's benched.

And then if these guys are good, but they don't win right away or they don't go deep into the playoffs right away, but show that they're really, really good, the market that we've created means I still have to pay him 50 million dollars on the upside. I don't know. I'd be sitting around in some of these meetings and can we come up with other ideas? We're smart people.

That's what I would be doing. You don't have to pay these guys 50. I know you don't.

No one's forcing him. I get it. Eight four four two oh four rich number to dial phone lines are lit. Guess what? I got power rankings.

Oh yeah. Hit it, hit it. Let's do it. Let's do it.

I have no choice but to do it. Rich, you're going to ask us how we're doing? Oh, I know how you're doing.

I mean just Chris does it. How are you doing? I feel great.

Are you guys doing well? You don't mean it. I'm not answering. You don't mean it. Because we all come in because I come into this power rankings every single week in a defensive posture. That's a YP. Yeah.

Yeah, you brought that upon yourself. We're here to support you. Number 10 on my power rankings list. Better be good. They're back on the list.

Dallas Cowboys. Definitely not. Definitely not.

Well, I'm smoking broke. Give me some depends. Back on the list. They lead the NFC south and they look pretty good doing it.

Atlanta Falcons are back on the list. Putting them right there. That's it. Yeah, 10.

They're the three seed. I get it. Okay. I get it. They're 10. Kirk's player of the week.

Kirk's player of the week. I get it. Okay.

I get all of this. I also need to see. Let's see them go home and this is a very winnable game against the Dallas Cowboys. Go win it. Let's see it.

Let's keep going. They're 10. Because I still think at number nine on the list, half game better in the standings. The reason why the Falcons are three is because five and three is good enough for them to lead their division. This team once upon a time led their division, but lost two games in five days. Five and two is not even good enough for second place in their division. The Minnesota Vikings are number nine.

Oh dude. So they almost beat the lions at home. They lose. Then they go on the road short week, lose to a Rams team that gets everybody back.

Damn near from Cooper cup and Pooka Nakua to Jackie Slater. You know, like they show up. That's the best Rams team that's been out there all year long. And the Vikings draft them.

They get them. They're number nine on my list. I'm not yet ready to quit the Minnesota Vikings. They're down five spots though.

They're on the verge. Number eight, one spot up. I'm putting the Russell Wilson Steelers right here.

Yep. They beat the jets. They beat the giants.

Russ is smelting. The smell, the running games going TJ Watts going, the special teams are going, all three phases are going six and two. They lead the NFC, the AFC north. That's low too.

All right. I still think if the Houston Texans play them, the Texans beat them, which is why I'm putting the Texans right here at seven. They're at one spot.

They're six and two. Who's who's playing wide receiver. I understand that.

I understand that. We'll see it on Thursday night against the jets, the six and two Houston Texans should go in there and win that football game. If they don't, you know what they won't be seventh on my power. Six up one spot. Your Washington commanders defensively, they are much more problematic than you are going to give them credit for coming to the season. That's for sure. And Jayden Daniels, uh, the rare double dip of offensive rookie of the year and MVP candidate.

Don't see it a lot. A lot of people thought, um, CJ Stroud should have been that last year and he wasn't when it all came down to it. Commanders are six and two. They're sixth on my list. Let's go top five. I like the Green Bay Packers, man. I like the way they look.

I like the way that it doesn't matter if love is banged up, love is banged up, goes down on the road. Malik Willis comes in and looks terrific. And they're, and they're coming up. They're drawn up plays, you know, that play to Jayden Reed that went down to sideline that basically won the game for him after the Jaguars came back on him in Jacksonville. Uh, that was a play that they, they were just like talking about on the sideline and say, let's do it.

And they uncork it and they beat the Jaguars with it. I love Matt LaFleur, dude. We need to gents.

We need, we need to talk about him for coach of the year. Yes. Six and two. They are up one spot. They're in my top five right now. And my power rankings down one spot. I'm going to basically chalk it up to you can't win them all. And you can't win them all certainly in your division on the road.

And, um, they got Jamest. I'm putting the Ravens here still. I still think the Ravens are a top five team in the NFL.

Come on, dude, get out of here. They can't play defense. Uh, I, I have a problem watching Kyle Hamilton drop that ball. He's as you know, one of my adopted sons in the national football league, he grabs that Ravens are six and two and a five game win streak. And they're still feeling good about themselves. Um, I, they, who was the one who came, was it Orlovsky came on and said he was head scratching about the play calls that they had on defense.

Just letting Jamis just like go for it. Um, I don't think they'll do that again. The Ravens are four on this list. I still think they're a top five team in the NFL up two spots or the Buffalo bills, baby. They they've earned it. They have earned it. They lose two in a row after winning their first three, and then they rip three in a row off again and they go into Seattle in a rainstorm. And that's usually where crazy things happen. Instead, they just pumped the Seahawks to the point where Geno Smith is saying, I thought I was on the road. Can you imagine? I heard that happen. They were number three. Now go back and forth here.

The lines look terrific. They are just eviscerating everybody right in front of them. They put a 50 burger on the Titans in three quarters, three quarters.

Jared Goff is playing at an insanely high level ever since Aiden Hutchinson went out. They still haven't skipped much of a beat on defense. And obviously we'll see how that plays out over the final 10 weeks of the season for them, but I'm still keeping them at two because there's a two time defending Superbowl champion. That is the only undefeated team remaining and there's seven and oh, and I'm putting the chiefs here and it doesn't look pretty, but the chiefs do exactly what your Patriots used to do. Situational football beat you up. Doesn't look pretty.

Doesn't matter. We still have the best quarterback maybe in the, in, you know, Mount, we got a Mount Rushmore quarterback. You don't, we got a Mount Rushmore tight end. You don't, we've got a, a defensive player of the year stallion in the middle of our defense. Most likely you don't and Chris Jones and they just keep adding and they keep getting better.

And every single time you think we can get them by the end of the day, you look up at the scoreboard and go, how did that happen? Well, cause it's the chiefs and that's my power rankings for week number nine. The only team that was on the list that went off it with the bears dropped them off. So that's my power rankings.

Yeah. You'd have the Ravens off the list. You really wouldn't put the Ravens in the top 10 in the national football league right now, Chris. They didn't play like it last week. I mean, that happens from week to week. You go on the road and your division rival beats you. It happens. I think Denver might get them. So then maybe Denver might finally get a sniff here. Okay.

That's my power rankings right there. No Eagles. That's right. I'm not there yet. Still not there yet.

I mean, they, they made your MVP look like a college kid. I'm still not, I'm still, I'm just still not there yet. Wow. Okay. I put the Falcons there. They're leading a division. I'm going to put a division leader on the list. I got to, I mean, the Eagles have the same amount of losses as their division leader, dude. I get it.

I'm not saying these are not worthy of pushback, but it's also proof why I entered this with a defense posture. Let's go to Jeff in West Virginia. You're here on the Rich Eisen show. What's up, Jeff. Great show. Really enjoy it. Thank you, sir.

All right. On the end of the great topic today, I tell you what, if I could choose one thing, I would have been on the back nine at Augusta in 1986. Oh, Jack, really good.

Roared again. And one last time, eight record, 18th major, six green jacket, man could be there. His son caddying for him. And to look, I think it was 15. I think it was on 16 when he looked at Jackie and said, how far do you think a three would go here? Well, I think, yeah, that's 15, right? That's the par five. I think it was 15. I think so. 15, right.

And then if I'm not mistaken, 16, on the par three, he hits his T-ball and the legend is that his son was the cat. He says, be right. Oh, yes.

And as he's picking up, as he's picking up his T from the ground, he says, it is. Yes. Yes. Right. I remember that now. Right, Jeff? Like that's the story. Be right. And he goes, it is. As he unpacks his T. It's the slow comes down. And the B on the course and the other players and the roar is picking up and they know something.

And to see the leaderboard of the day, still old-fashioned, they're posting numbers by hand and the Bears coming. Love it. It would have been great to be there. Thanks for the call, Jeff. That's a great call. Great, great one right there. That's a really good one.

Jeff and West Virginia. That's a very good one of those. Again, our topic is on the 50th anniversary of the rumble in the jungle.

Which event would you say if you could wave a wand that you could have been there for? That's a good one right there. Jeff is right. Jack did eagle 15. Then he birdied 16, right? Yeah.

That's the, then 17. He's a yes sir. Yes sir. He birdied that one too, right? Yeah. Come on, right?

Get out of here. I do love that one. I'm watching the shot at 16. He hits it. It's in the air and he doesn't even look at it. He just goes down and picks up his tea and it lands like three feet from the hole. And word again, the legend is, is that either his son, the caddy, or somebody said, be right. And he, as he goes to pick up his tea, he goes, it is. Can you imagine you have that ability?

No, I can't even imagine. Oh, it is. I got this.

Oh yeah. The roars in the crowd. And that's why Nance, who was the lead guest for What the Football with Susie and Amy this year, said that, I think Susie asked him, if you could choose between the Masters and the Superbowl for the last broadcast you do for CBS. He chose the Masters. He chose the Masters. The Masters is amazing. By the way, Mike Pereira with Susie and Amy and What the Football. We're going to play this later on.

He thinks replay assist is making officials worse. That's what he said. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah. I know I can't. Interesting.

Yeah. Well, we'll play. I want to hear that. That's going to be top of our three, but let's take a break. Bruce Feldman's here in person. Everybody don't go anywhere. We're talking some college football with Bruce.

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Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com or just stop by one of their local branches. Bruce Feldman here everybody from Fox Sports and the Athletic. We've been talking, yeah, that's worthy of a round of applause.

Thank you. We have been talking all day about, because it's the 50th anniversary of the rumble in the jungle, what sporting event if you could wave a wand and go to any time, which college football game if you could wave a wand and go to that you didn't go to or you would want to go to, which one would be? College football game.

That's a good question. Honestly, I would have thought about, this is not what you asked, but this is like, you and I are pretty much the exact same era. I was a little kid when Reggie Jackson had three home runs in the World Series against the Dodgers. I think, I don't know, we were like first, second grade, somewhere around there. I do remember getting to stay up to watch even though we had school the next day. And I think that would have been awesome to have been at that game. In 1977, I was eight. Yeah, so I would have been roughly the same.

Yeah. But any college football one? College football game, I feel like I've been fortunate enough to be at most of the ones I would have liked to have been at in retrospect. I'm trying to think of something historically that would have... Banned on the field?

Cal Stanford? That would have been crazy. It's just that game around it wouldn't have been like, it would have been whatever. Maybe the Doug Flutie, the game against Miami Thanksgiving weekend for BC. The game that has come up, and it's interesting because somebody interviewed me for this week because you have Mahomes Mayfield again. I was a sideline reporter when that game was just insane. That wasn't like two top 10 teams.

Oklahoma was pretty good and Texas Tech wasn't. But in retrospect, it was such a wild night to be there for that. But maybe the Flutie game just because it is such a game of legend as it was.

And it was a wild game back and forth. I would say probably there. I'm sure there's some game that I'm... I have no idea what it would have been like to be at the tie game, the Michigan State Notre Dame game, the Duffy Doherty era of Bubba Smith in 1966, I think it was. Never know, Bruce Feldman.

Those are all good. Or one of the 10 year Warbo versus Woody games or anything. Paul Bear Bryant. Man, I feel like I saw the best... If you're a Michigan fan, the best Michigan game, again, there's people who are much older than me who are Michigan fans. But when they went in there after they beat them the first time, and it was two years ago, and you banged up, Blake Horems barely can go. They had a bunch of other guys injured.

Donovan Evers has those two really long runs. And be on the sideline and hear the Michigan players, Saner Still, Michael Barrett, hear how they were talking about Ohio State players and the Ohio State toughness or lack thereof compared to them, just to see the fan reaction in Columbus that day. If you were a Michigan fan, to me, that would have been hard to top. Bruce Feldman here on the Rich Eisen Show from Fox Sports and the Athletic. Let's talk about the here and now for the Ohio State.

Ohio State four at Penn State three. Is that where you're going? You're going back to... You're going to Happy Valley? Going to Happy Valley.

Excited about it. Both teams are not like... It's a top five matchup yet. Ohio State, we had them last week and they really struggled against Nebraska, who by the way, got beat by like 50 the week before in Indiana. So, Ohio State has banged up on the O-line. They struggled to run the ball. I still think they're super talented and they can win the national title. They're really good on defense. You got Penn State, I think, from what I heard, that Drew Aller is expected to play.

They're optimistic, at least at this point of the week, that he will play. But they'll play the backup a lot, Bo Prabula, because he's a more dynamic runner in what they do. But neither coach, especially James Franklin, but neither coach has done well in big game, top five matchups.

And the records are really bad. And if you're looking at it as a Penn State fan, if you're like, man, if we're ever going to beat this team, it's not like Ohio State's bad, but Ohio State did not look good last week at all. Well, Will Howard, the quarterback, had an interesting soundbite.

Let's play it and get your reaction to it. This is what he had to say about playing Penn State this week. I'm stoked. I'm stoked. I cannot wait. It's going to be a homecoming for me. I grew up a Penn State fan.

I wanted to go there my whole life. They didn't think I was good enough, but I guess we'll see next week if I was. Wow. What do you think?

Sign me up. This is good stuff, right? You got a Pennsylvania kid coming back home. You know, he's had a really good career, won a Big 12 title for K-State. You know, he's played pretty well.

I mean, talking to like, we did a big story on the athletic, just it went up today about talking to coaches who played both. And he was good against Oregon. He was and he was good against Iowa. And Iowa was a tough defense or super well coached. And so I think he has it in him.

You know, I do feel like they have to unlock the run game. The thing that would concern me if I was most of Iowa's Ohio State fan is Penn State has super twitchy defensive line. And Abdul Carter, I'm not saying he's Micah Parsons, but he's of that ilk, of that kind of explosiveness. And Ohio State's offensive line, that is the weak spot right now. So fortunately, you have a big quarterback who is pretty mobile.

And they do a lot of funky stuff, right? You'll see the tight end. You know, you see 44 lineup all over the place. I'm fascinated to see how this plays out. Because I mean, I know Ohio State lost to a good Oregon team and a tough place to play. Coming out of that, they were still my pick to win the national title.

They did, you know, my knees buckled after watching them a little last week, though. We'll see what Ryan Day's team has this week on the road. And the fascinating thing is, as we're watching these two teams play it out, right, and Oregon's in the big house, we chatted with Kurt Signetti yesterday. We got him on the program.

And, you know, honestly, one of them make me feel like, you know, I was just bust straight through a brick wall. And what Indiana's doing is real. And the next four weeks, you know, they've got Michigan State. And then they go have Michigan go into their house. Then they go to Ohio State. And normally, that's one of those Ohio State, well, you know, we'll just stay healthy best we can because we got the Michigan game the next week. That could be for a Big Ten championship game appearance, right?

Absolutely. And don't underestimate Indiana. We had them against Nebraska, where they were just two steps ahead of the Cornhuskers. They just looked, they execute, they're really well coached.

I mean, they just are sharper. They just look like they're one step ahead of the teams they're playing, you know, and they, Kurt Signetti brought a bunch of really good players from JMU with him, like the kid who had two picks last week and won a pick six, Pons. He's a, you know, he's not a tall corner, but he's a super athletic kid.

He is a playmaker. They have speed on defense. I think that's the thing that surprises some coaches when they play Indiana.

It's like, ooh, they're a little faster than we thought they were, you know? And I think Signetti has good coordinators, you know, the other Mike Shanahan, who's done a really good job. And Bryant Haynes is the DC. He's put together a good staff. And I just feel like they are really dialed in.

They are. So what other games are you looking forward to this weekend, Bruce? You know, I'm interested to see, as we come out of like how this is, you got Florida, Georgia, Florida had a nice, you know, like I give Billy Napier a lot of credit because he's on the hottest seat in the country and he has battled and they have not quit on him at all. Now they have four, you know, they have five games left. One of them is against a bad Florida State team. The other one is against bad Florida State team. The other four are against like top 15 caliber teams.

He needs to upset one of them. I mean, good luck if it's going to be Georgia, but because I think that's the toughest of the four. But, you know, I want to see how competitive Florida can be with them. You know, we had a huge game last weekend that proved to be kind of, you know, the wild one of the weekend, the most impactful, where I'm on a flight home from Columbus and I'm watching LSU is up by like 10 or two touchdowns on A&M and the Wi-Fi goes out for like 20 minutes. And then I'm watching a different game. I kind of gave up on the game. Then I'm looking, I'm like, wait a minute, A&M's now up 11?

How did this happen? And then you watch them and A&M was just a more physical team. Mike Elko, big credit to him, the first year head coach at A&M.

He's done a fantastic job. They're playing two quarterbacks. You know, the backup came in and looked great. I mean, I want to see how these teams kind of come out of that game because right now I feel a lot of confidence in Georgia because I still think they're Georgia. We saw them get after Texas.

We sure did. I still think Texas is a really talented team. But then who do we believe in in the SEC as, you know, one of the top three teams?

Is it A&M with a really good defense and a really well coached team and can really run the football? You know, is it LSU who looked like they wilted a little bit last week and they didn't run the football and they, you know, put too much, I think it was too much pressure on Nussmeier, the quarterback. Are we feeling like Alabama can bounce back? They didn't look good against Tennessee. Tennessee might have the best defense of all of them, you know. How about Kentucky against Tennessee, right? You got a Kentucky team that lost by one to Georgia and was the first to kind of... But has there been anybody else other than Ole Miss?

Ole Miss, right. That's what I'm saying. So maybe that, maybe that's a... They bring their giant slaying ability. I don't know.

I'm just throwing stuff up against the wall here. What else? I mean, Georgia, Florida, that's basically the one. That is, you know, a headliner game right now. You know, and I think what will be interesting, you know, like Notre Dame had a big win last week.

You know, we've talked a decent amount on this show about Navy and Army resurgence, especially Navy. Notre Dame just hammered them, right? And so, you know, quietly, it was a very good week if you're a Notre Dame fan because two things happen. One, they beat a top 25 team convincingly. And two, their win in week one at A&M now looks way better because A&M, you know, is at the top of the SEC essentially. And they're a top 10 team and Notre Dame went in there and beat them.

You know, that's a really good win. You know, it's funny how we like look at the schedules and be like, oh, schedule's not going to look that good. Maybe this team. And then, you know, a couple of weeks ago I was like, oh, Army and Navy are ranked. Maybe that's going to be good because USC is not that good. Well, now the A&M win is going to carry a lot more weight. So then who are the teams that we need to look at in November here to make a nice run at that 10, 11, 12 seed possibilities for the college football playoff? Well, you're definitely looking at Boise.

They had a nice win on the road at UNLV. You know, Ashton Gente is a legit Heisman contender. He sure is, isn't he? He's fun.

Even, you know, like they get after him. He breaks tackles. He gets hard yards.

Last week was 130 and he had to, I'm not saying he didn't have to work for it before, but he was grinding it out. And I think he's showing you everything you need to see if you're an NFL scout. They're right in there. I think we need to see what else comes out of the AAC. Obviously, Army, I don't think just because Notre Dame beat their arch rival as convinced, that doesn't mean Army doesn't have a chance.

But they're there. I think you look at some of these other schools now. We're going to find out a lot more hopefully about the ACC. You know, Clemson is bounced back from that bad loss to Georgia. Miami keeps winning. Pitt keeps winning. Sorry, Brockman. Obviously, Pitt.

Yeah, that one left a mark. Yeah, it was pick six all over the place. Then you have like teams like, you know, SMU that are hanging around a one loss team. I mean, those are the teams that it's like, okay, I went into this thinking there'll be four SEC teams, at least.

That's what I thought initially. There will be four Big Ten teams. I still think there will probably be four Big Ten teams. I think there'll be four SEC team.

So four Big Ten teams, we're talking Oregon, both teams playing each other. Indiana. And then Indiana.

Yeah, those would be the four. Penn State, Indiana. Then you're sitting there looking at, you know, that takes eight. We're going to have one that's, we'll assume it's Boise for now. Notre Dame.

That's 10. So you get one from the Big 12, one from the AAC. Right now there's two undefeated teams in, well, actually in both leagues because you have Pitt and Miami. And on the other side of it, you have BYU and Iowa State.

I don't know. I mean, there's going to be an interesting argument whether a potentially 12 and one, I don't, you know, let's say both teams are undefeated. I don't think that'll happen in the Big 12, but if it does, you have a 12 and one second runner up. Is that team going to get left out for a nine and three maybe, or a 10 and two SEC team that doesn't have, you know, if it's BYU, if they're 12 and one, they have not just a close one. They blew out K-State. You know, K-State's ranked. They beat SMU, and SMU is a one loss team. They beat SMU at SMU. So they're going to have a resume that's good, but I think what's going to happen is the powers that be that sit in that room before the ESPN show on Tuesday nights are going to say like, well, it comes back to the eyeball test. And even if Texas loses to Texas A&M and Texas has no wins over ranked teams, you know, they lost by 15 to Georgia and whatever would happen in College Station. Texas gets left out. I don't think that's going to happen.

How is that possible? I don't buy it because I think it'll come back to the eyeball test for the, you know, but like people. It's not just the eyeball test in terms of what gets people to the television sets. I wasn't saying that. Now that, I'm saying that and that's, you know, that's part of this equation for sure. You're saying it's not all on the up and up. I'm not saying that. Now you're saying that. I'm saying that there is, when it comes down to it, a factor of who's going to watch and what and whether that's and that is a metric.

Certainly when there's partners that are paying through the nose for this sort of thing, you know, I think that that's. What are you saying about my sport? I'm not saying that about your sport. I'm saying it about our business. It's a business. It is a business. You know, look, I think Tex, if you ask me point blank, is Texas one of the top 11 teams in the country?

I would say yes, I would absolutely say that. The question is going to be, you know, your alma mater did not do them any favors. Maybe it'll be seven and five.

The alma mater's not doing me any favors or any of my compadres right now. But that was a dominant showing by the Longhorns. It's just, it's going to be a dominant showing against the team that's probably seven and five. We'll see what happens.

Maybe they'll go to A&M. They're certainly good enough to beat anybody. Right.

I would think they could, you know, that that game is going to be must see TV, especially the way things are kind of shaping. Let's take a break. Can I get you to the end of the hour or you're going to run? You can. Okay. You sure? Yeah.

Because you just looked at your phone. I want to make sure. No, this is a call I want to take, but. Go ahead. Take it. Let's take a break. Go ahead. Go ahead. Take it. Take it. Take it back with Bruce Feldman.

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That's OReilly auto.com slash E I S E N. O O O'Reilly auto parts. The caller there right now here on the Rich Eisen show. Who is this person? Hello? Hello, Rich. This is a guy that's not all that keen on fresh guys, but I want to tell you happy birthday. Oh my God. Happy birthday to you.

No, I'm going to sing it. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Oh, Richie. Happy birthday to you and a whole lot more. It is your old pal, Joe Willie.

Roll turn and go just name. Joe, this is the greatest thing of all time. Thank you for doing this.

How are you doing? I just, I'm a fan. I've known you for a long time and all of a sudden you've lived a long time and I hope you live a whole lot longer too. Oh my God, Joe, you don't have no idea what this means to me right now to get, to get a call from you on my birthday. You know, I mean, thank you so much.

I can't, I don't even know how to say it. As one of your fans, you've got millions of fans out there these days, man. So keep up the good work. I love listening to you.

Thank you. And I appreciate that, you know, cause you know, I was born the year you won the Super Bowl, Joe. That's the year I was born. That was a good year.

You see that? That was a very good year. It was a good year and a day in the life.

It was a good year and a day in the life for sure. But you know, I'd love to be able to not have to say that, right? I'd love to be able to talk about some, some other championship other than that, Joe, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, well, that may come about. So once again, man, I don't want to take your time up here much.

I know you're talking about some important things, but I love you and I look forward to seeing you around campus. All right, everybody. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.

Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickgranger.com or just up by the phone call that Bruce Feldman was going to take. He took it and then he's just like, I gotta, I gotta run. And we're like, no, you do you. We will do us. And that's a appreciate Bruce Feldman coming on the program as he does every single Wednesday. They knew that the, the team I was going to bring up to him saying, why not?

Just for, you know, what's in giggles. How about prime Colorado buffaloes? They had a real shot to win the big 12. Well, here's the issue is that they're, they're four and one Iowa state's four and O B Y U is five and O and they don't play each other. They need some help. Kansas state is four and one, you know, Colorado is also four and one.

So they're going to need some help. They, they face four teams. The rest of the way here, Texas tech, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma state. They're at Texas tech this weekend, but they're six and two men. If they finish, listen, if the Colorado buffaloes finish up 10 and two and do actually somehow wind up, you know, finishing up eight and one and do wind up somehow playing for the big 12 championship.

You got to give it up. Yeah, that's a great year. Like right now they're in position to have vastly improved bowl eligible here before they even hit November.

You know, I always came for him. Why not? But you have to think that they won't be at large. They're not taking it the way they, we, we Bruce just laid it out. They're not taking two big 12 teams. They're not going to take the loser of the big 12 championship to this party. If there are other, if there are other, I guess, must haves, they have to add from other conferences and then Notre Dame is, Notre Dame is, is sitting out there, but that would be the eyeball test too. Let me ask you if Colorado's ranked is the 12 seed taking on the loser of the sec championship game in, in that school's house. Are you tuning into that one? Oh man, that's fun. That's what I'm saying.

That's why the eyeballs are going to, when he says, do you pass the eyeball test? It's a TV show. It is. Of course. Let's not kid each other.

And he took it like, what are you saying about my sport about it? I'm not, I'm saying that this is a factor. It has to be a factor because if these games are going to be going against, you know, other events and you're, you need people to watch, they're not doing it on new year's Eve again. Are they anything stupid like that?

Are they? No, the quarterfinal games are on new year's day. The Rose bowl is part of the quarterfinals. Yeah, man. I mean, you'd have to say putting a team that everybody hears about and knows about and knows about as a 12 seed in somebody else's house, right?

For a first round game. I love that idea that they're doing that. It's great. And just one last thing. Oh, wait, there is a new year's Eve game. There's one, the Fiesta bowl.

Well, I mean that, that, that I get, I understand that. Yeah. And then the three, is that a college football playoff game? Yes, it's a quarterfinal. It's one of the quarterfinals. The three other ones are on new year's day.

Rose bowl, peach bowl, sugar bowl. And then the, the first round games are the week before? Yeah, the week before. Okay. So Friday, December 20th is one game.

And then there's three more on Saturday, the 21st. Hmm. Okay. Well, here's the scoop. What we just heard from Bruce Feldman is, remember there were some people saying, Hey, if you have 12 college football playoff teams, it'll make the regular season worth less. Anybody feel that?

Watching college football? You feeling that? No, not at all.

TJ? No, not really. Right. Where you're, you're like, ah, it doesn't matter if you win or lose, they're still making the playoffs. Certainly now that you're hearing, if Texas slips up one more time and suddenly they don't have any wins against any top 10, top five, and they, you know, they have two losses that they might be left out.

Yeah. I actually think when, when teams have one loss, like when Georgia played Texas, Georgia had one loss. If they lost that game, they're basically out unless they run the table and win the SEC. So it kind of like amps up these games where teams have one loss. So the stakes are still pretty high in the regular season, right? Are we, are we all in agreement on that? And then we're also now trying to parse out who's left in who's, who's left out and who's in with 12 teams going, that's still going to be quite a conversation, don't you think where somebody is really livid, pissed that they're being left out after a whole long season, just because they do have two losses, right? Or the wrong, one of the, one of the losses is one of the so-called wrong losses.

Right. Just like the SEC, Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss thought they looked like playoff teams at the beginning of the year and even early month in, they all have two losses. They're not making it. Well, I mean, if four SEC teams make it, you don't think they do. You know what I mean?

Like, Oh, I don't know. We take a look at the SEC standings. You're going to put it two loss Alabama or one loss Indiana. Oh, I don't think there's no question you take Indiana.

Pretty, yeah. It's pretty simple. I win. That's what I mean. We're going to tell that guy he's not going after just only one loss, maybe to Ohio state. Right. In the, in the, in the horseshoe. That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

You can't, he's going. Those, those guys are out. So Texas, I mean, it does matter, right? Whether who, and those conference championship games.

Now that's the one, will those matter? Well, will the loser of that game, if it's a close game, be left out and suddenly now you are being left out because you had to play a game that was essentially meaningless. Right.

Or you're making your conference championship games, elimination games, as opposed to letting them go and try and play for the championship. Exactly. Yeah.

I think we finally found where the weak spot of this whole system may be, but the other ones are not. They're not, you know, where we're, it used to be, oh my goodness, we're not going to, we're not going to have a regular season worth a damn, or we're just not going to have as much of an argument as to who gets in and who gets left out. Right. Alabama is going to, they, they got to run the table, don't you think? They got to run the table and win the whole thing.

Cause I don't even know if they can. I don't think four out of the big 10 is going to be a problem for people. Indiana should go the way that they're playing. And, and if they win three of their last four, they should go, they should go.

Yeah. So they play Michigan state, Michigan, Ohio state. So they, and Purdue. So you say they dropped to Ohio state, they're 11 and one they're in. I think so. Even though that might not be good enough for them to play for the big 10 championship.

That might actually be a good thing. I know. Right. But I'm sure Indiana fans will be like, wait a minute, we can go to Lucas oil and watch our team try and win the big 10. I think who's your fans would be, want to be all in on that. Oh yeah.

Penn state can almost eliminate Ohio state this weekend. Dude, you're going to do this. You're going to get this done. Oh yeah. I hope so.

How about that Will Howard sound bite? Stoked. Cause Indiana, Oregon and Penn state they're in no matter what, no matter who wins or loses. Right. Then 11 and one Indiana. And then Ohio state is kind of the, are they the last team in? Oh boy.

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