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That's the headline. The Rich Eisen Show with guest host Brian Weber. OMG. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
Oh my gosh. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Welcome to the telethon. I've taken not one, but two with the possibility of a third phone call coming up here in the final hour of the show.
844-204-7424. As always though, the best way to get involved is to X me. X me here, X me there. B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs.
Then wall-to-wall football. And apparently Chris Kringle does not want my thoughts on the flaws and the profoundly broken structure of the college football playoff because in both instances I left real estate to cover it. We had a phone call, which is totally cool. And why I'm here, after all, this is not me opining on a podcast. Whole point of being live on a nationally syndicated sports talk radio show about to have an even bigger platform if you've not heard the news. Rich is joining the Infinity Sports Network. Coming up Monday, January 6th when he returns from vacation. Although you'll hear from Rich next week.
But just jot it down because Rich is also the hardest working man in show business. January 6th the show will have even wider reach. Phone number won't change. 844-204-7424 as part of that 24 hour sports radio network.
Which I've been affiliated with in the past. When they sat down with Rich and said, hang on, hang on. Is Weber coming with you?
And like the Wolf of Wall Street. I'm not going anywhere. I can't shout though because I'm in the world's dustiest studio.
And every time I take an inward breath my tongue slowly goes down my throat. So I'm doing my best. That's a lovely image on a holiday week too. Keep you constantly updated as to what's going on across the world of sports and all of the big takeaways from a jam packed weekend going back to Friday night with the college football matchup filled with sensational energy. Far better atmosphere than the product on the field. In fact that was the key takeaway for all four games. But Notre Dame Stadium was electric.
Something magical about South Bend at night in the wintertime. And since I have candidly spent about 12 minutes all in on the playoff. We're going to do it with even greater detail coming up in 40 minutes when we say hello to Stewart Mandel, long time college football writer. You can check out his outstanding work these days for the athletic. If we get to another phone call it'll be 20 minutes from now.
Here's what's also on the docket at that point of this last hour of the show. Talking just a little bit of Tiger Woods because flipping around yesterday I happened to catch the father son gimmick and saw in real time Tiger's son Charlie hit that hole in one wonderful moment really humanizing Eldrick at this stage of his life. Seems like he's having fun. In fact that was his first time if you want to believe that's a competitive event. I'm not saying it's scripted like the WWE but the first time we had seen Tiger playing since he had back surgery in September. What does that look heading into the new year in which he'll turn 49 next week just prior to the calendar of flipping.
Just a little bit of Tiger coming up because any time he actually is able to stand in a tee box and hold a club it is actual news. Back to the NFL. I do my best to map out the show fairly meticulously but I didn't mean to have this kind of NFC bias. A lot of that just happened based on the games yesterday and the game of the day during the daytime window. Undeniably played in the nation's capital we spent a ton of time with our takeaways from Jayden Daniels game for the ages in the midst of a five turnover game all told by the commanders. Jayden Daniels responsible for two of those giveaways with a pair of interception maintained his composure led the two minute drill to beat Philadelphia denying the Eagles a chance to clinch the division snapping their 10 game winning streak although I have to say every time I mentioned this game Jaylen Hertz left in the first quarter with a concussion. It does not diminish the quality of the comeback, but it certainly changes the overall dynamic of the matchup.
What it means is this. The Lions continue to control their path towards having home field advantage throughout the playoffs in the NFC. But remember they wrap up the last two weeks of regular season with divisional games. And if you have not peer too far down the highway, the divisional matchup I'm talking about next week would be the one that jumps off the page, Minnesota hosting Green Bay. We will see Green Bay tonight against a battered New Orleans squad.
And that's an interesting opening. And I'm not just talking about hey be wonderful to live in New Orleans, although I have purchased my ticket. I'm going to Super Bowl week just to hang out.
Now I'm sure, knowing my salesman like personality I will be glad handing and hustling for work but you give me the opportunity to go to New Orleans and I can say it's semi work related, I will be there. Speaking of the openings, I'm going to talk about this more tomorrow because I have not focused that much on the Bears other than the beating that Caleb Williams is taking and the absolutely hideous defensive performance that we continue to see in the Windy City. I'm going to turn off the Monday Niner tonight presumably another Green Bay win because here we are with the Saints now down to Spencer Rattler who had a very nice career you'll recall both at Oklahoma and South Carolina. But the Saints have a lot of issues to address heading into the offseason looks like Derek Carr will be moving on to team number three. We go through the hierarchy of the jobs that we think will open up and probably not Dallas, because as we discussed with Jared Bell of USA Today.
In the last hour of the program. Just when you thought, big Mike McCarthy had been buried. He's got a large metaphor casket Cowboys and one four or five, somehow found a way to beat the Bucks who gave him a lot of help with their lack of ball security last night, and Dallas at seven and eight doing more with less.
Plus, as we discussed with Mr. Bell. When you think about how Jerry Jones approaches things he wants a pawn he wants a stooge as a head coach. He's got that in Mike McCarthy, he wants him to be reasonably cheap he's got that in Mike and he can bring it back for a couple more years and not have to write a bigger check nor give up any control to a much more impactful candidate.
So the NFC is starting to come into focus at least at the top we're looking at at Philly still with a chance to get back to where they need to go, although the problem for the Eagles and that race for the top seed is that Detroit is heading to San Francisco. For all the people who said Brock Purdy somehow was a victim of lousy draft analysis. How could Brock Purdy be Mr. irrelevant coming out of Iowa State.
How did he have to endure waiting three whole days to be the final pick in the draft. Have you watched Brock Purdy play this year. Pretty interesting when he doesn't have Christian McCaffrey, and you have injuries completely obliterating the season for the Niners on both sides of the ball how human and pedestrian Brock Purdy looks through a ghastly interception late in the game yesterday allowing Miami to seal the victory. I'm not saying Brock Purdy is not worthy of a contract extension, but the demands allegedly from his side I think the timing of the leaks, clearly from the 49ers. Pretty interesting going back to how poorly Purdy played on that rainy Thursday night losing to the Rams a couple weeks ago for Brock Purdy and you can ask for anything you want that's the art of negotiation, but to think Brock Purdy is worth 50 million 60 million is absolutely insane. And I fully understand what the going wage scale is for a starting quarterback in the NFL, and I just gave you a sense of how it works in negotiation.
As you know, you start with a high number and come down. But I've been consistent with this and we'll get back to relevant teams in a moment. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen last call for phone calls because we have Stuart Mandel of the Athletic Talking College Football coming up in 30 minutes at 844-204-7424. Brock Purdy is a system quarterback. He is a game manager, nothing more, nothing less, nothing wrong with that. But if you're going to manage the game, you can't throw interceptions and you have a better shot at managing the game when the game is filled with pro bowlers like McCaffrey and the rest of the weapons who just have not been there. I don't know what's going on with Deebo Samuel.
Clearly, there's something amiss beyond his ability to hang on to the ball when it goes this way. So it's a lost season in San Francisco. And remember, they don't have to do anything with Purdy. They have the ability to extend them in the offseason, but he's got one year left on the rookie deal. They can slow play if they want.
What's the market for Brock Purdy right now? Another reminding thought that timing really does drive every contractual decision. But as we slot things in the NFC, likely comes down to the Lions and the Vikings very quietly. And I know Sam Darnold's got a ton of attention, but it's the Minnesota defense, if you really have been tracking things, and we saw it again yesterday, I give Geno Smith credit for even being on the field, gutting out the injury. But it's Brian Flores' defense that's allowed Sam Darnold to have, I think, the mindset that, and he's cut down on interceptions lately, it's going to be okay if he makes the mistake because that defense is going to go out there and get the ball back quickly.
If not just a straightforward 3-8 out. Another interesting conversation in terms of contract, as we're spending other people's dollars and cents, what do the Vikings do with Sam Darnold? Because he's going to be a free agent in the offseason.
Looks pretty clear it's going to be the tag, right? You could be the biggest Sam Darnold fan in the world and try to spin it that he's earned a long-term extension. Doesn't work from my point of view for these reasons. I keep mentioning USC, even though I did not have a good time at graduate school and I wasted over $100,000 on a meaningless degree. However, I'm here in Los Angeles, I saw him play a ton at USC. My issues with Darnold, back to the same fundamental, ball security, either interceptions or a lot of fumbles, especially in his time with the Jets, but that's the Jets. I want to give people second and third chances and think about the trail of tears professionally that Darnold had to go through. You go from the Jets to the Panthers, you don't have a chance. Spend a year on the Niners at least getting some coaching from Shanahan and his staff. And you show up in Minnesota, Kevin O'Connell is one of the most respected people in football, just seems like a really good dude, and you have Justin Jefferson to make sensational plays as he did again yesterday. All you fantasy owners are well aware of that. I am not anti-Sam Darnold, but the tag makes sense for a couple reasons.
Do you believe this is sustainable or is this the outlier? And they invested a first-round pick in J.J. McCarthy. Now, I'm not convinced that McCarthy is a lock to go to the Hall of Fame, and that's not the threshold, but if you believed in McCarthy enough to take him with that run on quarterbacks we saw in the draft in Detroit last year to start the opening round, don't you have to give him a chance to get on the field at some point? So I think it's pretty clear where it's going, Darnold with the tag, but we got a lot of football to maneuver through before we get to who's getting paid when and by whom. So that's the top of the NFC. Lions, Vikings, Eagles, and I'm not going to waste your time talking about the Rams, the Bucks, or the Falcons who now have the inside track winning that division. Green Bay is interesting. I want to hit pause on that because we're going to spend so much time talking about the Pack tomorrow to open the program coming off what I think should be a beatdown on Monday Night Football tonight at Lambeau Field. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen.
Hit me up on the X platform, B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs. In terms of the AFC, the reason why I haven't spent a lot of time talking about it comes down to Buffalo having a sluggish performance yesterday. Now those games will happen, and very quietly, Drake May has really found a learning curve in his rookie year for the Patriots. Now remember, and I'm not going to bore you with all the minutiae, but the knock-on, Drake was footwork, and look, I follow this stuff too closely, but everybody has weaknesses to overcome. The question about Drake was, got a big arm, can he maneuver the pocket?
Because you got to give yourself a chance to at least survive the NFL, and the answer is yes. Now, let's also provide some context, Buffalo's defense has been a sieve. Remember the wild game against the Rams? How'd they look defensively there? How about the shootout against the Lions? So it's really, in my estimation, another reflection of why Josh Allen deserves to and will win the MVP, because any time he takes the field, he has to have a mentality of, alright, do I have to go out there and get 48 points on my own? Which he's capable of, as we know, with his five touchdown game not too long ago. And it's no surprise that Buffalo's having defensive issues, because their biggest question mark entering the year was the massive roster turnover.
We are always fixated on the bright, shiny objects, namely playmakers. So when Stephon Diggs was traded to Houston, that was the headline move, but we didn't talk about all of the key defensive leadership that Buffalo said goodbye to, guys like Jordan Poyer and the rest. So I'm not surprised at all that Buffalo's given up a ton of points in critical situations, but so long as you have Josh Allen, you have a chance, and let's just tell it like it is, Allen was very human yesterday. Just over 150 yards, threw a touchdown, threw a pick. Bills won that game because they controlled things on the ground, which is a departure from the past.
James Cook becoming more reliable. The problem for Buffalo, even though they have the head-to-head win over Kansas City, they're the only team that's gotten Kansas City. 14-1, and for once on Saturday, the game wasn't even that tight. Now, 27-19, you could say, okay, well that's more competitive than it should be, but let's do the math. Well, that is a one-score game.
I am terrible at arithmetic. Watching the game, it never felt like Kansas City was in jeopardy, because if you've seen them, do I have to go through every game? We already talked about the Raider debacle on Black Friday. The Panthers game, I could do this for the rest of our remaining 45 minutes.
How about the opener on Thursday when Lively, a Thursday night to start the season in September, when Lively was out of bounds for Baltimore by, what, 2 centimeters? That's the entire summation of the Chiefs' year, but bargain implosion, because they're 14-1 and the Bills are 12-3, home field advantage in the AFC is going to go through Kansas City. If it didn't, we just found out last year what they do, they go to Baltimore, they make a statement, and they head on to the Super Bowl and they win it again. In no way am I trying to come up with a strawman argument that this is an unbeatable Kansas City team. They should have lost five or six games this year.
You pick which ones you want to select. My questions come down to their ability to protect Patrick Mahomes, who magically suddenly got better from that high ankle sprain, right? Last time we saw him, he's limping around the field.
What do you know? It's Christmas miracle. He's back and balling out on Saturday, and Steve Smagnola's defense has not been as formidable this year as they were last year. It was the defense that carried Kansas City to the second leg of what they hope is going to be a three-peat, but beyond that, I've already told you why. The Texans, while they've won the division, aren't going anywhere, and the Tank Dell injury just reinforced that. Think about all the defensive problems that Houston's had this year. Ravens, to me, are right there with Kansas City and Buffalo.
It's a three-team Troika in the AFC. I'm not telling you anything you don't know, other than are the Ravens actually that much improved defensively, or are the numbers a little bit massaged based on their opponents? Case in point, Steelers just can't move the ball.
That is a Stone Age offense. Their kicker is their most valuable offensive weapon, and I'm going to give Russell Wilson some credit. He's looked far better this year because he's clicked with Arthur Smith's offensive system, but the Steelers are relying on their defense, and it feels like it's 1978, but this is not the steel curtain. I just don't know that they can score points in critical situations, still with the knowledge that they control their path to winning the division, but I don't view Pittsburgh as a legitimate Super Bowl champion, do you?
8-4-4, 2-0-4, 7-4-2-4 is the number to call after that. You take a step down, certainly a remarkable transformation of the Chargers underway, but that's what Jim Harbaugh does everywhere he coaches, dating back to San Diego, not San Diego State, San Diego on the college ranks, and Denver, credit to Sean Payton for coaching up Bo Nix. That is a limited team that cannot run the football. I realize they have won nine games.
I think they were exposed in the second half against the Bolts last week on Thursday, but making the playoffs is still an achievement, even if you're likely one and done. I am open to taking a phone call coming up. We will check the quality of those of you hanging out at 8-4-4, 2-0-4, 7-4-2-4.
I do know this. In 20 minutes, for once, uninterrupted college football analysis, as I was unable to get the job done earlier in the show, because we took those phone calls. We'll check in with Stewart Mandel of the athletic. Straight ahead, just a little bit of Tiger Woods. Saw him yesterday over the weekend in that father-son gimmick, the PNC championship, although I don't work for them. Sensational scene to see his son Charlie have the ace. First time Tiger played since having back surgery in September in that father-son gimmick. What's a realistic outlook for Eldrick heading into 2025?
I'm Brian Weber as we head down the stretch on a jam-packed Monday edition of the Rich Eisen Show. World class business and travel benefits, so you can get more for your business wherever it takes you. With the Amex Business Platinum Card, you can earn 1.5 times membership rewards points on select business purchases. And you can get complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges worldwide, including the Centurion Lounge, so you can keep running your business while you're on the go. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love.
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That's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N, O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, like Allo or Skins, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling, and for shoppers, buying simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. With ShopPay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts are going abandoned and way more sales happening. So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whatever your customers are scrolling or strolling, on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more, sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skins uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify dot com slash Westwood One, all lowercase. Go to Shopify dot com slash Westwood One to upgrade your selling today.
Shopify dot com slash Westwood One. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show radio network. Brian Weber back with you and I'm 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 click Grainger dot com or just stop by. Coming up in 15 minutes, we wrap up the program with gusto. All the fallout from the first round blowouts across the college football playoff and we'll get you set for the quarterfinals with early thoughts provided by Stewart Mandel of the athletic.
In my meticulously detailed rundown, I had carved out some time for Tiger Woods thoughts coming off the father son gimmick tournament in Florida and son Charlie having the A's, although the audience is never wrong. And now I feel like I'm a switchboard operator back in the day because we're going back to the phone lines. 844-204-7424 and here is Corey in Illinois. Hey, Corey, you're on with Brian Weber. Happy holidays. What's up? What's up, Brian?
Happy holidays to you, too. I turned a little late today, tuned in a little late today, but I tuned in. You were talking about the Raiders and someone sitting through watching that game yesterday. Yeah, well, I was able to sit in the comfort of my home. Wait, you're the one. I found the one person in the entire United States. I wish I had a prize to give you, but it's the end of the year.
We're out of inventory. I mean, I mean, it was so bad. I mean, as soon as you seen it on TV, there was nobody even in the stands. I mean, you know what? When it all comes out to him, a 43 year old Raider fan be a Raider fan to the day I die. But this team will not get right. This organization will not get right until one thing happens.
And Mark Davis has to get rid of the team. He's not. Hang on.
Let me jump in. You know, he's not going to sell the team. And I'll give you another obvious another obvious demonstration.
He's selling chunks of it, using it as an ATM now. I know. But you know what, Brian? We are fans, man. You know, some of us in life want to want to win. We want to win.
We want to be relevant for tired of being irrelevant every year. And now you got turmoil going on. You know, AP wasn't coming back.
So let's go this yesterday. What happened was a straight kick in the face of time to let's go from AP. And now us fans got to suffer again with some whatever we're going to happen is going to happen. You know, all we want to do is just be irrelevant and watch good football. Brian, that's all the Raider fans and Raider nation wants. But until this guy gets his ass out of the way, this is what we're going to get as fans moving forward, empty stadium.
And when it is full, it's opposing fans. Nobody wants to come here. It's not going to happen. It don't matter if we had the first pick or not.
They wouldn't mess that up. Being a Raider fan, we just got to deal with it, man. Just when baby, is it what it's supposed to be? Because Mark doesn't know what it means.
So I don't know, bud. Here we are another year. Just function Raider nation going crazy. The Twitter Raider nation's fighting everyone's fighting.
Raider nation. We want the number one pick. Mark got another. They can't even take it right. They couldn't even take it right.
He could have just kept Ritter in for the rest of the year and let Ritter play. And let's see what happens. Couldn't even do that right. So we'll figure it out. We'll see what they got up their sleeves this year. But here we go again.
Everything's going to be another show in Vegas. Have a good day, sir. I want to get the hang up.
Oh, my man should have said outro. I feel like my longtime friend JT the brick rolling phone calls in the middle of the night. Raider nation unite. Now again, and we are talking Tiger briefly.
I don't want this as the fill in hack to be autobiographical, but I can't avoid it. I was very lucky. I started my TV and radio career in San Francisco when San Francisco actually had viable sports talk radio. When I was doing TV, I was the Raider beat reporter for Fox Sports Net Bay Area. I covered that team on a daily basis for two and a half years. Then we all got fired. So I spent a lot of time with the Raiders.
And the good news as the former co-host of the Tim Brown show on the ticket 10 50 KBR 10 50 as is branded now. Those teams, you might remember. Now, again, this is not too relevant for today because it happened 25 freakin years ago. Those teams were powerhouses and the John Gruden debacle and the tuck rule. And then Barrett Robins, God rest his soul, going AWOL to Super Bowl. I don't have to play the hits, but I understand the outrage. And I don't think it's just Raider fans who have the feeling that, wait a minute, we care about this team. Not only do we give you our hard earned money, we give you our passion, our energy and our souls. And this is what we get in return.
But unfortunately, there's no mechanism other than a Donald Sterling type event for ownership to be removed. How many giant fans do you think is now I go East Coast? We're spanning the country.
I'm Brian Weber, Infra Rich Eyes. And this is good. I was only going to do two minutes on Tiger anyway. How many giant fans do you think if they could have a referendum would say the Mara slash Tish family must go? Let's keep it in that parking lot. How about jet fans with the Johnson family? Especially coming off that expose by the athletic saying that Woody Johnson's teenage kids are wandering around the locker room with their girlfriends, ripping the players and giving the old man personnel advice based on Madden ratings so they didn't sign Jerry, Judy, Judy, Judy. There are plenty of dysfunctional ownership groups to go around across the world of sports. Mark Davis is unique because and this is getting really in the weeds.
I'll do it briefly. Remember, the Raiders still have widows from the American Football League who own small portions of the team. Mark is effectively cash broke. The team is his ATM.
That's why. And it was a discount for Brady to get him in the door along with Richard Seymour. But he's also now in the process of selling two big chunks of the club to a real estate mogul and a major name in the entertainment world here in Southern California. Mark is not going anywhere. Your decision as a fan is do you ride with them blindly or at some point do you say I've had enough?
And look, if I was doing Haki Magoo radio, throw it out there. Can you change teams if you want to? I've evolved on this. I'm now 55 like Mike Gundy.
I'm a man plus 15. I used to say once you had a team, you had to stick with it like religion. And I'm now a lapsed Catholic as we're getting deeper. And I went to 12 years of Catholic school, so I earned the right.
Folks, it's entertainment. If your team gives you nothing but heartbreak, you can break up with them. Look, we never had divorces back in the day. Now, as I do my Colin Cowherd impersonation here, some relationships are meant to end.
The other side would be you look at the commanders. How many decades did fans in Washington think there's no way we're ever going to have any hope? Who would have thought Dan Snyder would ever sell the team?
Different situation. The league was pushing him very hard based on all of the dysfunction and all the horrible things that allegedly happened on his watch within the organization. I'm not even talking about on the field. Mark Davis is not going anywhere. So if you're a Raider fan, you have to make a decision. And I know you folks, I am part of Raider nation, part of you. And I know you're going to find this to be a disconnect.
Part of you enjoys the pain because it makes you enjoy the highs as infrequently as they come. All the more. But yes, thank you for the phone call.
Do we rack them? That's a different show here. But I watched just as much of Vegas v. Jacksonville led by Mac Jones as I can endure. And clearly the Raiders should have lost that game. And in this case, you got to follow the playbook when you're in the hunt for the number one overall pick.
Losing is winning. The Giants knew the assignment. The Giants did their job.
Raiders, for reasons that make no sense, won that football game. And they dropped down currently to the sixth overall pick. They could still get in the market to get the number one overall pick.
They could trade up. Not over. Here I am talking Raider fans off the ledge. Hey, for Tiger Woods, I can do it in 30 seconds. It's over. He's never coming back. The one thing you should look forward to if you're a Tiger fan, to track Charlie moving forward without the pressure, hopefully. And I know that's never going to happen of being the son of a legend. Tiger turns 49 next week.
Why is that significant? He's one year away from the Champions Tour in which he can ride a cart. That guy is so maniacally competitive.
And this is his identity. He's going to play the Champions Tour. Now, he's never going to be relevant again on the PGA Tour. Remember, he only played five events last year. And he's embarrassing himself with the majors because he can't walk. His body is broken.
But nice to see him in a human situation and the sheer joy he displayed sharing that moment with his son when he knocked down the ace yesterday was interesting TV. All right. Well, this has been an interesting show. We've got more to get to. I guess Raider fans now are going to hijack me every time I go to the phone lines moving forward tomorrow on Christmas Day. And I'm here for it.
844-204-7424. Up next, as promised, we get back to what happened on campus Friday and Saturday. And we look forward to the quarterfinals of the college football playoff.
Can they be hopefully far more intriguing and entertaining than the blowouts we endured this weekend? We'll cover it all with Stewart Mandel, all the athletic. I'm Brian Weber, always having a good time with you.
And for Rich Eisen here on the Rich Eisen Show. Breakfast. There you go. Bagels.
Watch what Lala is talking about on YouTube or search for give them Lala wherever you listen. Brian Weber back with you. Let's wrap up today's program with style points and we'll do it again tomorrow. And I'm back with you on Christmas Day as well, all live, because Rich wants to make sure you're fully covered even during the holidays. Always a pleasure to talk college football with Stewart Mandel of the Athletic. Stewart, thanks so much for taking the time.
Happy holidays. How you doing? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well.
Well, I follow you on the X platform, as everyone should. And it felt like you had to spend a lot of time, especially Saturday as the day was moving along, fighting off people on social media who were angry about a variety of things, even though we have more football, which is certainly a good thing with the 12 team playoff. And I thought the on campus atmosphere was sensational.
So overall, how would you sum up what happened on Friday and Saturday? Yeah, the novelty, the historic moment of seeing Notre Dame Stadium, Beaver State, all these great college football stadiums filled up for a game in mid-December was awesome. Unfortunately, we didn't get very entertaining games, which, for whatever reason, in college football, more than any other sport, people seem to think if the committee would just nail the seating exactly right, there would be no blowouts. When in fact, that's just part of sport. Maybe next year we'll have a better first round. All I know is in the four team era, where the team should be closer together, number one through number four, we had a lot of lopsided games.
So unfortunately, I don't think there's any magical way to avoid those. As you were pointing out, repeatedly on the X platform, but we love sports because we're passionate, not always logical. Stuart, how about the wrinkle of on campus games beyond the energy? Don't you think that could lead to more blowouts just because we see the advantage of home field in college football throughout the regular season? Yeah, home field makes a big difference. And there were moments in the Penn State game where I saw their quarterback, Kevin Jennings, you know, they struggled to get the ball off a couple, or their offensive line struggled to get the ball off a couple times.
And that's what this system is designed. Those teams that got to host the home games were rewarded, and you should get the home field advantage that comes with it. Would it have changed the results if those games are at neutral sites?
I don't think so. But, you know, and also I would just say that the Ohio State-Tennessee game was not as much of a home advantage as maybe you would expect at the horseshoe. There were a lot of Tennessee fans, they were loud, and of course they went very quiet pretty quickly because Ohio State dominated that game.
Talking college football with Stuart Mandel, check out his standing work at the athletic. I was going to ask you, in terms of expectations, what was your outlook for Ohio State-Tennessee since we're now using the college basketball parlance? You never know what's going to happen in the 8-9 matchup, and how surprised were you that turned out to be such a beatdown? Well, the game was hard to forecast because we just didn't know where Ohio State's head would be after what happened against Michigan. You know, you could have seen that going either way. Obviously, they brushed it off and they came out determined to redeem themselves.
There's another scenario where that, you know, the demoralizing nature of that loss and the embarrassment that came with it, you know, just compounds itself. But this was the Ohio State team we expected at the beginning of the season. They have so many weapons on offense. For whatever reason, they haven't always been able to capitalize on that, but they certainly did that night. In Tennessee, without Dylan Sampson, their star running back, did not have, once the game got even a little bit out of hand, there was no way they were going to come back.
That team is built around its running game and around Dylan Sampson, he just wasn't available. What's your sense of how committed the committee is and the power brokers that run college football are to the particulars of this current setup? For example, do you think maybe as soon as next year they might reseed because you have a lot of angry Oregon fans saying the reward for being undefeated and the top seed is arguably the toughest path moving forward once we get to the quarterfinals? The biggest flaw in the format, and it was well-intentioned at the time, was before all the realignment, was to reward the conference champions by giving them buys.
We see now we have a power two, not a power five. The Big Ten and SEC champs are generally going to be a very highly ranked team. That was not the case this year in the other three. That would probably be the first thing to get unwound, but not for this coming year.
The new contract kicks in the year after that in 2026. The way the system is now, the way the structure of the CFP has been is to change anything that has to be unanimous. Really, anybody with the Big Ten and SEC doesn't have much of a motivation to vote against reserving the first round buys.
But once you start the new contract, everything is up in the air. I personally think it should be the reward for winning your conference at the automatic berth. Clemson would not be in the playoff without having won its conference. Arizona State would not have been in without winning its conference.
That's the reward. The buys should be to the top four teams. Stewart Mandel of the Athletic is our guest.
I'm Bryan Weber in for Rich and the guys here on the Rich Eisen Show. Before I ask you about some of the details, and we have an early look ahead to the quarterfinals coming up on New Year's Eve and January 1st, there is still the normal slew of non-playoff bowl games. So if I had to ask you to pick one or two that stood out to you, if we're not talking about the playoff, what kind of marquee matchups do you see? I think one of the more interesting ones will be the Alamo Bowl, Colorado against BYU. I think there's a bit of a surprise that both Theodore Sanders and Trapper are going to play.
They are. Against a BYU team that probably should have gotten more consideration for the playoffs. They were 10-2. They beat SMU, obviously, who did go to the playoff. They're just never really in the mix, but they're a very good team. Colorado is a very good team. I know it's weird that they're both in the Big 12, just a legacy of the bowl contracts and the Pac-12 team still going to their old bowl game.
So I'm interested in that one for sure. And then something earlier than that maybe, the Vegas Bowl. A&M obviously ended the season in disappointing fashion against Texas, but there was a lot of signs of encouragement for the future, including with their quarterback. I think they'll be very excited to be there. Then they're going against the USC team that obviously had a disappointing season and started the season in Vegas, actually.
Chance for redemption for them. I think A&M is going to be without a couple of their star defensive players. It might be an opportunity for USC. Last year, they won the holiday bowl, which was a nice ending to an otherwise disappointing season.
Maybe they can do it here as well. Let's wrap it up with a couple thoughts about the quarterfinals, and we can skip Texas being a double-digit favorite over Arizona State. Same story with Penn State taking on Boise State as much as I admire what Ashton Jenti has done this year and throughout his career. Notre Dame, Georgia, very interesting on a variety of levels, but we have to start at the quarterback position if we presume that Carson Beck is unavailable. Stuart, what did you see from Gunnar Stockton when he played the second half of the SEC Championship game coming off the bench?
I thought he played decently, except for that interception that helped Texas get back in it at the end. He's a different quarterback, so you'll see probably a different style of offense. The quarterback will be a bigger part of the run game, and really that's what they're going to try to do is run the ball, which will be tough against that Notre Dame defense. It's an interesting matchup because they're both kind of built the same way. Strong running game, strong defense, built to stop the run actually. It's a really even matchup, and some people will scoff at that and say, you know, Georgia, recent two-time national champ, Notre Dame's always overrated, but Vegas thinks it's a very even matchup, and I trust them, so that should be interesting.
Yeah, no doubt. As you said, the Sharpies in Nevada have it basically a pick-up, and then finally, Ohio State a slight favorite over top-ranked Oregon in a classic Big Ten matchup, right? Ohio State and Oregon in the Rose Bowl, as I'm sure most people listening remember, it was a thriller at Austin Stadium with the Ducks edging the Buckeyes by a single point in Eugene, some wild decision-making by Ohio State on that final drive.
What do you think the rematch might come down to? I think it's going to come down to is Ohio State, what we saw the other day, can they do that twice in a row because they've been very up and down off-season, very inconsistent, and obviously they have a quicker turnaround to this game than Oregon. Oregon's been exactly who they are pretty much every week.
I expect them to play well. Ohio State probably still more talented across the board, but hasn't always looked that way. I know Vegas has the Buckeyes in this one, I give Oregon the benefit of the doubt that they can do it again, but it's been a long time since that first game, two months have passed since that first game, two and a half months, so we'll see whether it has a different feel to it or not. Stewart, as always, greatly appreciate the insights and you taking the time, especially during the holidays, enjoy the rest of the bowl games and looking forward to chatting with you again in the new year.
Alright, thanks for having me. I'm Stewart Mandel, long-time college football journalist, you can check out his outstanding work at The Athletic, and I was not trying to be dismissive of Arizona State nor Boise State, but I'm not going to spend a ton of time talking about double-digit dogs and that gets us back to the flaws of this system. I understand, as Stewart laid out, why the decision was made to reward conference champions with buys, however, as he put it succinctly, we now have a Big 2, and the Big 2 of the Big 10 and the SEC runs the sport, and when we get to playoff expansion coming up in 2026, whether it's 14 teams, 16 teams, 18 teams, we've already heard from Tony Petitti, Big 10 commissioner, Greg Sankey, who runs the SEC, arguably the most powerful man in college sports, they are beginning the conversation about demanding multiple automatic bids for their schools because they run the sport. There's no czar of college football, just follow the money and it all flows to the Big 10 and the SEC, and you can certainly rest assured that the perception that Alabama got screwed, and I don't think that was the case, and you can't just say, well, SMU was terrible, Kevin Jennings was scared with three interceptions in the first half, Alabama would have done better, you can't just reverse engineer it. At the time, according to the merits of the resume, and you have to have some objective criteria, SMU had the better case amongst two flawed teams, had to head against a three loss Alabama, then the Tide did to sneak into the playoff, but that gets back to my central point. There aren't 12 teams in the age of parody, with NIL money flowing through the sport, and the portal giving college football and college basketball free agency, there aren't 12 exceptional teams. So you're going to have blowouts, eight was the better number, but obviously, other than the callers who respond to me giving out the phone number like a carnival barker, the folks who run college football are not listening to me.
They should have listened to me about the Pac-12 a long time ago, I would have saved my beloved conference, now I've got to pretend I care about the Big 10, and I'm not ever going to be an ACC show, I don't care if it costs me a couple bucks, my alma mater, Stanford, has no business being in the all coast conference. Well, we got a lot done as I'm reaching over to pat myself on the back for day one, especially coming off a monster sports weekend. Tomorrow, all the fallout from what should be a lopsided game at Lambeau Field, Packers want to take another step forward to locking up the wild card and enhancing their drive to surpass what they did last year. Remember, Mike McCarthy should have been fired after they won in Big D on their way to the divisional round of the post season. More college football on the docket as well, want to thank Stewart Mandela of the Athletic and Jared Bell of USA Today, plus your phone calls and your interaction on social media, Art Martinez. As always, running the board skillfully, I'm Brian Weber, and for Rich, we'll do it again tomorrow here on the Rich Eisen Show. My world with Jeff Jarrett, wherever you listen.
