CFB Guest Pete Fiutak College Football News.Com - They had to postpone the Sugar Bowl

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Oh my God, you guys are my favorite. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Rich Eisen. I know what I'm talking about.

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. It is the final hour of the program. Still plenty of time to express your opinion.

844-204-7424 or you can hit me up on the X platform, B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's in 20 minutes because it's a holiday tradition.

And I am Hacky Magoo as a guest host. Why not some New Year's resolutions in the sports world? I know that's going to be appointment audio. Far more compelling will be the conversation coming up at 2.40 Eastern time with P-Futec of college football. The college football news.com. No change in terms of what's happening in the college football playoff quarter final match up at the peach ball between Texas and Arizona State. Sun Devils did manage a field goal in their opening drive since then.

All Longhorns. It is 14-3 with 13 minutes left in the first half. Texas finding the end zone on a pair of impressive plays. First play from scrimmage for the Longhorns. 23-yard touchdown pass thrown by Quinn Ewers. And they chase that by a 75-yard punt return also for a score. So in the span of just a couple plays, Texas flexing its muscle over Arizona State. As we open the program, we are mindful and we are sending positive thoughts to New Orleans and everyone that was impacted by the tragedy that occurred early this morning.

Reports indicating the death toll is at 10 with scores of others injured in what is being investigated as a terroristic attack in New Orleans. I'll read you an update from Stewart Mandel of the athletic who covers college football very well. In fact, Stewart joined me on this program last week. There's a further briefing from the FBI and I'm reading quotes directly from what Stewart posted on the X platform. An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle in question. Weapons and a potential IED also located in the subject's vehicle.

Other potential IEDs located in the French Quarter. I can also let you know there is a report and I'm getting this from Awful Announcing linking to an ex-post from New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU. They are reporting that their sources tell them the Sugar Bowl will be postponed.

It is scheduled to be played tonight between Notre Dame and Georgia. I can fully understand a decision to push back the football game, especially when we're talking about an ongoing crime scene involving multiple agencies and law enforcement just a couple miles away from the Superdome. At the same time, I understand those of you who say postponing a football game is allowing the bad actor to create more fear and disruption in our lives. To me, it's always about the abundance of caution and we'll wait until we get further information and official confirmation. But I would not be surprised if the game is postponed for a variety of reasons.

Safety as mentioned. Also, just think about what the overall mood must be like right now in New Orleans. You have a city that is grieving and I can understand those of you who say life must go on. But we're talking about a horrific event that occurred at 3am local time in New Orleans and sometimes sports should be secondary to real life, especially when we're talking about a tragedy of these proportions. Not that it truly matters. Texas is back in the red zone. No easy transition to make there.

But I'm doing my best to multitask and keep you updated as to what's going on on the field. We know this following Texas and Arizona State, which is following the pattern of one sided games so far in the college football playoff era of 12 teams. Not a surprise. I'm seeing some apologist out there saying is rust a factor for Arizona State? No, the problem is Texas has much better players. Don't tell me that Boise State was rusty last night. The issue was Penn State had better players, especially on defense. That's why, in my opinion, Ashton Gente was held to a season low 104 rushing yards and wound up 28 yards short of Barry Sanders single season record in college football.

Although Gente, as you know, had additional games to make a run at that record because everything has changed in that sport. I want to be fair to Boise State as I opened the program with these thoughts. If you're just relying on the final score to give you the tale of the tape, that is not a complete picture. That game was 24-14, Penn State in front, nine minutes to go in regulation, second missed field goal by Boise State was the backbreaker, and then Penn State rattled off the long run for better than 50 yards for what was the score that put the game out of reach. Penn State moving on to await the winner of the game between Notre Dame and Georgia whenever it's played. Folks in Happy Valley, much happier for the outcome of a big game to their side of the ledger for big games, James Franklin. Because big game James has had a pattern, especially in the games that matter to the folks in State College, namely Ohio State and Michigan, of being unable to deliver a signature win.

Now, when we get to playoff expansion, that creates opportunities. And I'm not bashing James Franklin, just as I would be a fool to somehow poke holes in the resume of Ryan Day. I looked it up this morning just for confirmation. Ryan Day has this outrageously good record, 67-10. Now, I'm not good with math, how many of those 10 losses have come to Michigan?

Fortunately, four in a row. The Longhorns were able to move the chains, and they're knocking on the door for another score, a third and goal at the Arizona State 4 coming up, looking to up their lead from the current score of 14-3. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. We're live on this New Year's Day.

You can reach the program on social media. My ex-handle is B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Penn State deserves to be where they are, because if you go through their body of work this year, their only loss in the quote-unquote regular season, I know the conference championship game is still under that heading, but they lost it home to Ohio State because those are games that James Franklin always loses, 20-13. They gave Oregon all they could handle, 45-37, the loss for Penn State in the Big Ten championship game. They throttled an embarrassed SMU, in part because Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings looked like he just didn't want to be there with the three interceptions, a pair of pick-sixes in the first half alone, although let's have a little sidebar conversation. Alabama fan, I am not trolling you. I don't have to.

I can just read your record. So for all the people freaking out about SMU was exposed by Penn State, how do you think Alabama would have done when they lost to Michigan yesterday in their bowl game? Now I know what SEC hawks are going to tell me. Hey, Bama had nothing to play for. They didn't care about that game. Had it been a playoff game, we would have seen the real tie.

Okay. I'll listen to that argument. I'm not buying it because the real tie, quote-unquote, also lost to Vanderbilt, much better Vandy team. We're not talking about 1984 Commodore football, but they had the grotesque in a football context loss to Oklahoma. And Oklahoma was horrible this year. So I am not in any way, when I'm doing my critique of the format saying that it's a referendum on Indiana, SMU, Boise State, now Arizona State, that they got curb stops. And there's still plenty of time left in Arizona State, Texas.

We're nine minutes into the second quarter, but it feels like if the Longhorns score another one, it could put the game out of reach of 21 to 3. What I am saying is it would not have mattered if Alabama got in because the 12-team format doesn't make any sense. There are not 12 exceptional teams every year that are worthy of competing for a national championship. But I know that next year and the year after when I'm talking about, hey, a 14-team playoff is coming, hey, the 16-team playoff is on the horizon, you're not going to care about my opinion. A, I'm just a felon host. B, we're all so intoxicated with football, we just want more of it.

I'm going to concede that point to you, but it doesn't mean that it's a better product. And SEC fan, how did Tennessee do in that, quote unquote, showdown that was going to be played at the horseshoe? Look at the volunteer players. They're not scared. They're not cold. They're taking off their shirts.

They should have left them on. It was 21-0 Ohio State in the blink of an eye, 42-17 hospital job. The mighty SEC exposed, as Alabama was yesterday.

So all of this is a reflection of what's wrong with the system, but as my dear departed grandfather used to say, you can't fight City Hall. This ain't changing, and it's only going to get worse. The only thing we can hope for on a year-by-year basis are the obvious tweaks, starting with no, and it's a field goal for Texas to increase their lead to 17-3, eight minutes left in the first half.

I'll keep you posted. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen, live on this New Year's Day with more college football analysis coming up in 30 minutes when we say hello to Pete Futak of collegefootballnews.com. All we can hope for is the obvious flaws are addressed immediately.

And what will be the motivation of that? TV ratings that don't measure up to what they could have been. I understand healthy numbers were produced for the games played in primetime in the first round. Not so much the games that ESPN sold to Turner Sports that were unwatchable. But to give you more of a background to think about the context of things, neither the Ohio State blowout of Tennessee nor Notre Dame rolling past Indiana got a better rating than the SEC championship game between Georgia and Texas, which is completely reasonable because that was a game with stakes. I understand there were stakes in the first round of the college football playoff, but they were brand names that casual fans can gravitate towards, and it was a thrilling game, the first time the SEC title game had ever gone to overtime. So while these numbers are big and there's a lot of money to be made, a series of blowouts is going to lead the TV executives in concert with the powers that be that run the college football playoff. They're all in business together to come back and say, what can we do to tweak this thing? And step one will be a team like Arizona State and Boise State will never have the benefit of the buy again unless somehow they make a massive leap forward and they wind up being one of the four top ranked teams. Probably not going to happen in my lifetime, but that's why we love sports. That's the obvious part that was broken, and we've been saying this since the guidelines were released. But you have to go through a learning experience to get further credence for an argument. They've got to reseed after the first round.

That's an obvious tweak to be made. And as I mentioned the last hour of the show, let's say Texas, Arizona State had the exact same circumstances as we're enduring right now. 17-3 Longhorns. Now if you're an Arizona State fan, remember Texas played down, in my opinion, to level competition in Clemson in the opening round game.

Tigers scored that quick touchdown, felt like they belonged, then the beatdown started, and then Texas defense took a mental holiday in the second half. That game became far more competitive than it should be, but at least if this game was being played on campus, I'd have more of a reason to hang around because of the great atmosphere, because of the optics, because of the energy. This game's being played inside the Georgia Dome, and every time I turn off the TV, if you want my inside baseball behind the curtain, I turn off the TV during the monologues because I want to focus on getting these words out in the proper order. But when I turn on the TV during the breaks, it just seems very antiseptic. And it should be, because neutral sight always changes the dynamic. Let's have the other change that would be easy to make, and also have benefits in a couple key areas starting next year, just as was a major asset in the first round of having games being played on campus, and mostly from a standpoint of watchability.

Remember, these are TV shows, after all. Gotta do it in the quarterfinals as well, and it would give the football consumer, you, let's say you're a booster or a season ticket holder of any of these teams that are still alive. You want to go on the road for the quarterfinals and semifinals, and if you're lucky enough to compete for a national championship, that is a massive financial burden. So let's hope that common sense prevails in the short term, but common sense in college football do not come together all that frequently. Coming up, 5 Eastern, we will have the Rose Bowl, and gonna be fascinating to see what Will Howard has to offer. I realize of all the sports that football is the most team-driven, but if you're looking for the player who got the most heat in Ohio State's one-point loss on the road at Austin Stadium, it was their quarterback. He made some lousy decisions in that two-minute drill that had Ohio State on the cusp of coming up with what would have been a scintillating road win. Not putting it all on their quarterback, but that's the byproduct of playing that glory position. So I want to see what Will does, and of course I want to see the matchup of the receivers for Ohio State, undeniably becoming wide receiver, you and Jeremiah Smith, picking up where Marvin Harrison Jr. left off.

Just a freshman, he is a dynamic playmaker. Want to see how the Ducks secondary matches up with all the weapons that Howard has at his disposal. Remember, if you think about how things played out in that game in Eugene, Dylan Gabriel and the Ducks are the only team that scored more than 17 points on Ohio State all season long.

That's how potent Ryan Day's defense was. So I think it's going to be a heck of a game. I love watching the Rose Bowl either way.

Odd to say, Big Ten matchup between Oregon and Ohio State, but at least fitting that one of the remnants of the old Pac-12 will be there in Pasadena. What I don't want to hear is, if Ryan Day loses this game somehow, his job is in jeopardy. Let me say it again, Ryan Day is 67 and 10.

That makes no sense. That is absolutely outrageous, and I know Buckeye fans would line up to get Urban Meyer and all of that ludicrous baggage that comes with him, you would hope the adults in the room would say yes. I'll put it this way, Ryan Day has to beat Michigan last year. We said that coming into this season. Remember, Ohio State spent something like $20 million in NIL to come up with this roster, loaded with NFL talent on both sides of the football.

Return on investment is key. But I just think it would be short-sighted and knee-jerk, however we are talking about college football, if for some reason Ohio State has a lousy performance in this game, and I don't see that coming, we saw them come alive in part because Chip Kelly, who goes back with Ryan Day to their high school connection in New Hampshire when Ryan Day played for Chip Kelly, I didn't get Chip's play calling at all against Michigan. I think he's smartened up against Tennessee, much more aggressive, much more aerial focused with those wideouts I head on, but let's say things go south here in Southern California for Ohio State. I can understand, I don't agree with that, I can understand Ohio State fans freaking out, but in no way would it be justified to make a coaching change.

67 and 10 has got to mean something. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen, in just over 20 minutes we get back to the college football when we check in with Pfutech of collegefootballnews.com. Straight ahead, I don't often do thematic things, but it is a holiday, and I am a guest host, so by definition I'm a hack.

I am able to read scores though occasionally, and it's Texas maintaining their 17-3 lead over Arizona State with 5 minutes to go in the first half of the Peach Bowl. Up next, New Year's resolutions for the sports world, I'll give you one for each of the major sports. What would Uncle Brian fix? I know you want to hang around for that. Happy New Year as we roll on live on this holiday edition of the program. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich, right here on the Rich Eisen Show. How Jason proposed, and she was like, he brought in a bunch of bagels. I was like, I have to stop. I will punch you in the throat. If you ever tell this story again, then call it a bagel. But he'd tell you. Now when I tell the story, I go, he went and got breakfast.

Bagels. Watch what Lala is talking about on YouTube or search for Give Them Lala wherever you listen. Bravo TV star Lala Kent holds nothing back on the Give Them Lala podcast. No, I have a very short fuse. Get to know the TV personality.

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You are scared of failure, so it prevents you from trying. This is where we implement a big set of ovaries and then we obsess. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. Brian Weber back with you. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk on this New Year's Day furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickranger.com or just stop by. Updating what has been a one-sided first half so far in the college football playoff quarterfinal matchup between Texas and Arizona State. All Longhorns 17-3 inside 3 minutes and 45 seconds to go in the first half. And we can make official what we were setting up the foundation for in the previous segment. We're now coming directly from Sugar Bowl director Jeff Hundley saying Sugar Bowl is to be expected now to be played tomorrow Thursday night saying quote it will be postponed 24 hours so it's official. We will not have a Sugar Bowl tonight in New Orleans understandably so after the tragic events that occurred around 3 AM local time. I fully support and understand the logic for several reasons as mentioned because there's an active crime scene with a terroristic incident being investigated by state and federal law enforcement officials only a few miles away from the Superdome. You have the human element of a grieving city. You have an event that would draw thousands of people to one location. I think if you put that all together the decision to postpone the game until tomorrow we don't have the official time as of yet is the most logical outcome and I thoroughly support it.

I know some of you will have a differing opinion, but I can understand how and why the decision was made. We'll get further context from Pete view tack of college football news.com coming up in 15 minutes since this is my last segment other than the interview coming up. And my last show phone in for rich for a long time not to belabor the point. Mr. Eisen has your best interest in mind a reminder coming up on Monday, January 6 you might check your local listings or rich I'm sure we'll give you all the particulars. This show is going to have a much bigger footprint joining the infinity sports Network. Nothing else is going to change phone number will be the same 8 4 4 2 0 4 7 4 2 4 with the simulcast back tomorrow, but occasionally depending on where you live. The affiliate might shift to another one. So just be aware of that but in terms of phone calls and I think if you listen carefully, I kind of of doing a pro wrestling gimmick.

I'll never be as much of a heel as the great Bobby the brain heen. When I say phone calls taken selectively the means I rarely take calls now for whatever reason last Monday. It was like a telethon.

I was Jerry Lewis on Labor Day. We had a boatload of calls, but as a veteran guest host. I realized the majority of you want to wait for rich and on a holiday. The audience is altered. I'll put it that way if we think about the quality of calls coming up starting Monday already a great fan base listening to this program and I love when rich gets interactive.

There's going to be a whole new segment of listeners being exposed to the show and I am very happy to continue to play a small role contributing to rich and his team and what they work so hard to build. Now, I am running the risk of destroying all that goodwill by doing hack radio, but if I throw out there preemptively, I know it's hacky. Am I in on the joke? This sounds like I'm trying to justify in my own mind something I would rarely do but come on. It's New Year's Day. Some of you are so hungover.

You're saying why is this guy shouting at me. Others of you are saying yeah, I really want to know some resolutions for the sports world and with all the big words out there and all the pontificating. I could make it more fun than I did, but I take this show seriously.

Hopefully it comes through. I don't take myself that seriously, but I'm not doing anything personal. I'm not pointing out somebody who might be in a bad marriage. That's not my point and I'm even leaving Aaron Rodgers alone. I came up with three resolutions, one for each of the major sports that I think would be a hugely positive development in the new year. And yes, I am sucking up to Rich here because that's what you do as a guest host.

And he has been out there with his massive following, better than a million two followers, the last check on the X platform. Throw it out every time it happens in the NFL, something that I have been haranguing for decades. Will we please get rid of the worst rule in all of sports when you fumble into the end zone?

Explain to me how it makes any sense that the defense gets the ball at the 20 yard line. I'll just throw it out there. I'm waiting, I'm waiting and I can understand the pushback.

It'll sound something like this. I am not just a carnival barker throwing out absurd ideas. Here's the defense of this archaic and inane rule. Well, we have to prioritize the end zone.

It's just that special. So we're not going to treat it like the rest of the field. Okay, but what if I fumbled at the one inch line?

What happens there? Fumbles out of bounds that is. What if the ball to one inch line? It is way too punitive. It makes absolutely no sense. And I think the NFL is just trolling us at all levels of football that they refuse to change this dumb rule. I've been yelling about this for years.

So I realize this will be one more example of somebody with a very strong opinion that is simply using common sense to arrive at a conclusion and nothing's going to change. But at least I feel better about being on the record. I want this noted.

I am Paul Newman in the verdict. Noted exception noted. Your Honor, here's one that also is pie in the sky, but it's overdue. And this is contrary to most of what I believe in life and sports. I'm pro performer.

I don't love the word talents, but how about this? The people that produce the revenue are more important than the people who benefit from it. Namely, empty suits, middle managers, and maybe that's why I've had some ups and downs in my career. But as much as I believe in that, it is long overdue for baseball to have a salary cap. Because when you get a cap, you're also going to have a salary floor. And that means teams like the Oakland A's.

Pardon me. The Athletics, who are no longer connected to any city. How's that grab you, Sacramento? At a AAA facility, going to be 108 degrees for all those night games in August, the Athletics would have to spend more because when you have a salary cap, you also have a salary floor. But the distinction financially between the haves and have-nots has become almost grotesque. And this is not just a reaction to the Dodgers quote-unquote buying a World Series. You can't fully buy a championship in MLB. Look at the joke the Mets wore a couple years ago. But you know what you can buy?

Unlimited depth. And that's what the Dodgers did loading up at the trade deadline because they don't have a budget. They can spend whatever they want and they get players to buy into that notion by helping them with deferred contracts. If we had tighter financial guidelines in baseball, the game would be more interesting.

And I realize this goes against everything I believe in most walks of life. I don't want anybody to have a cap on their earning ability, but it's gotten so ludicrous in baseball. Maybe I'm reacting to the Soto contract because you knew he was only going to go to the Dodgers, the Mets, or the Yankees. It's a broken sport that has been aware of the need to change, like the pitch clock, which was a huge positive. But to get there, we might have to go through something like we saw in 1994 when they blew up the sport trying to put the cap in and nothing changed.

And in the process, alienated a generation of fans and canceled the World Series. And finally, since I'm fixing everything, there's got to be three-point reform in basketball. Let's start in the NBA and it will trickle down. You're not Steph Curry. You're not Klay Thompson. You're not Nikola Jokic.

Should I continue to go? You are not an NBA player. College basketball didn't do that. Stop chucking threes from 47 feet out.

And that goes to a lot of the NBA conversation as well. The game has become largely unwatchable because it's all three-pointers all the time. Because of Steph's influence and because of analytics saying, keep shooting the threes, doesn't matter if you miss them.

Over the long haul, you're going to get a slight differential because three is worth more than two. And the law of averages says, keep shooting those threes, it's going to be your benefit. We now have centers trying a dozen threes per game. So the straightforward fixes, get rid of the corner three. Just have a line wherever we set that line because wherever we do Steph's going to knock it down from 42 feet. So just a line beyond the top of the key.

We can come up with a number together. The corner three is too easy for these guys to make. It's the closest shot when you're going through the geography of an arc. Get rid of it or cap the number of three-point attempts allowed per game. Because then it'll become what it was meant to be, the home run of baseball, the way to come back quickly when it was first introduced as a gimmick in the ABA and then thrown into the NBA in the mid-1980s. But nobody foresaw analytics taking over sports and fundamentally changing all of them. The three has, to me, made the NBA, which I love as much as the NFL in some circumstances, even more than football, just a brutal watch. And I think the league is even aware they are dealing with a crisis beyond the ratings. That's not important.

Fundamentally, it's just a different sport getting harder and harder to watch. Less than a minute to go in the first half, thoroughly controlled by Texas. 17-3 over Arizona State in the first of what will only be two quarterfinals today.

As I mentioned, opening up this content block. It's official. Due to the tragic events this morning in New Orleans, the Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia has been postponed until tomorrow night. We do have another game coming up between Ohio State and Oregon, and we'll get you fully lined up when we check in with Pete Futak of collegefootballnews.com. What's going to be the X Factor in Pasadena? We'll find out coming up as we continue on a special holiday edition. We're live with you on this New Year's Day here on The Rich Eisen Show. Ryan Weber back with you. Let's keep the conversation going on social media after the program.

It's B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's, simulcast back tomorrow. First, though, let's wrap it up with gusto talking much more college football with a good friend and the voice of reason in a complicated sport.

It is Pete Futak from collegefootballnews.com. Pete, happy New Year. How are you? I'm doing just fine. How are you doing?

I'm doing well, and we've got to start with the significant and serious news of what has occurred today in New Orleans. Your reaction to the decision that became official about an hour ago, the Sugar Bowl has been postponed. Yeah, they kind of had to do it. I mean, it's obviously they have to deal with all resources to every other aspect of this. And it provides them time to get more people involved and make sure all the real world stuff is taken care of because you're going to have, you know, 80,000 people descending upon the stadium right after all that's happened.

You need to make sure that everything is squared away as much as possible to get more parts in there. They usually do a sweep of the stadium bomb sniffing dogs and things like that a couple of days before. And then they lock it down.

But I haven't been through those things before. It's tight. It's not airtight. And now they're doing it again and forget getting into that stadium for the next 24 hours because they're going to really make sure. So it really is just a everyone take a deep breath. Let's just postpone the game for 24 hours from a football standpoint.

Obviously, it doesn't matter compared to the real world stuff. But from a football purely logistical standpoint, it sort of has to be played tomorrow. There's no talk of moving to anywhere else or anything like that because it's coming up fast. The Orange Bowl is going to come up fast. It's January 9th. So if you delay this any more than Thursday, all of a sudden you have maybe five or six days to get everything in place for the semifinal.

And there's no way that they're going to change that outside of another horrific incident or anything like that. Pete, as you said, this is immaterial and kind of trivial. But since you brought up the logistics, correct me if I'm wrong. And you are, Mr. College football. The Gator Bowl is scheduled for tomorrow at 730 Eastern. Yeah, everything's still ready to go on at the same time. So I mean, they're going to at the moment, they have not done anything to play around with that because obviously you want to, you know, again, just on football wise, if you're ESPN, you don't want to, you know, cross dreams and, you know, put anything opposite that.

Yes. My question is, what do you think the Sugar Bowl will be played after that game? I would guess, you know, I don't know.

I would guess prime time. I would guess if anything, they would move the Gator because they want that CFP and prime time for the ad dollars. So again, I'm totally speculating. My guess would be is that you get the Gator Bowl started three hours, four hours earlier, move that up a slot and then play the Sugar Bowl and maybe delay the Sugar Bowl a little bit, maybe play it a little bit later tomorrow night.

Yeah, that makes sense. And obviously we're all trying to make informed decisions. On the fly, I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen talking college football with Pete Futak of collegefootballnews.com.

Hey, Pete, what do you know? Another college football playoff game that is largely one sided. Are you surprised at all by how things have gone so far with Texas leading Arizona State 17-3 at the half? Not even a little bit.

I mean, again, I have to keep stressing this to everybody. This is not the NCAA basketball tournament. You're not going to get central directional state, you know, getting hot from three for a couple games and all of a sudden ending up in the Sweet 16 or anything.

You're not going to get a Cinderella story in this thing. And if there is, it's going to be one upset. It's almost certainly not going to be two, because unlike any other sport other than maybe baseball where you have maybe a difference in payroll between like the White Sox and Dodgers or something like this, there is no bigger disparity in talent resources and all the other parts than there is in college football. And even in baseball, you get a hot couple of starting pitchers and all of a sudden you're all right. You can't do that in college football and especially now because the guys who are playing for Texas and Penn State and Georgia and Ohio State and Oregon. Those are real guys. Those are the big those are the NFL guys. Those are the big time talent. And this is what they play for. And they get through the season. OK, folks, that can focus.

Now it's on. And so now you're seeing what happens when teams with extra time, extra rest, extra preparation, the multimillion dollar assistant coaches, they're all getting time to prep for one game. And you can kind of see the superior talent pushing through. So really, again, I kind of have to stress what the point is of this.

It's just to give everyone their shot and then we get them out of the way. And then next week we're going to get the massive final four that's going to have Texas, Penn State, the Georgia Notre Dame winner and the Ohio State, Oregon winner. And we will preview what's coming up at the Rose Bowl, the Oregon Ohio State matchup in a moment. But since we're talking about how we've arrived at this point and I think everything is subject to review, what's the likelihood after the success from the optics standpoint of those first round games being played on campus? What's the likelihood of doing that in the quarterfinals? Understanding the balls now would be pushed aside.

And we're talking about the dollars and cents of the balls having a stake in the quarterfinals. Yeah, I don't think you're going to get that because there is an issue, though, where, yes, tickets. If you care about, you know, butts in the seats and you're seeing all this stuff about you on StubHub, you can get in for like five dollars to some of these massive ball games. Well, it's because it's like let's say you are a, you know, a Georgia fan or let's say you're a Notre Dame fan and you went to that. You want the first round game because it's historic. You want to go see the Indiana game. OK, then if you want to go to the Sugar Bowl, you have to obviously pay for, you know, all the parts of it.

A hotel room in New Orleans on New Year's Eve. Good luck. All the money it takes for that and all that. And then you're hoping to win. So then you can go to the Orange Bowl and then you're hoping to win that because then you've got to go travel to the national championship. So while from that standpoint, it's not a good look for some of the the ideas of filling these big stadiums easily, you kind of have to do it to keep within the confines of the ball system.

And if you ever have doubt, as most people know from the Watergate tale laid out in all the president's men simply follow the money. The ball's also part of this huge college football playoff military industrial complex. As we get deep on New Year's Day, I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen talking college football with a few tack of college football news dot com.

Pete, in my mind, it was the game of the year. Ohio State and Oregon, as you know, ducks edged the Buckeyes by just one point in Eugene. What do you think today's Rose Bowl could come down to? Yeah, again, you know, all the other incidents decided after we get this one out of the way. Now it's on.

You know, now it's like, OK, now we're at the adult. We get we get all the preliminary stuff out of the way. We prove you got your shot. Arizona State. You got your you know, your your swag bag and your chance Boise State. Indiana and SMU fine.

You're in. And meanwhile, how about the clean cut that? Wow. Does Alabama and South Carolina not know whining about that now?

You know, you can't. I mean, Alabama had that was a that was all in for Alabama. That was a no opt out thing. That was a real deal. Alabama gassed against Michigan. So it's clean at this point. So everyone got their shot. We're good now. We got it.

We got that out of the way. Now it's going to be all the big time games. And, you know, it is a shame that it is Oregon versus Ohio State here. It might actually be this might be the national championship this afternoon, but it's the Rose Bowl. It still feels like Big Ten Pac-12.

These are two monster programs. I can't ditch my pick since January now that Ohio State's going to win the national championship if Ohio State just gets out of its own head and just plays. It's a minus game. It wins this if it gets all like airtight.

Oh, my gosh. What happens if we lose that? You know, like they tend to do Oregon's absolutely good enough to win this. But finally, we should get a really, really good college football playoff game in a couple hours. And finally, that suggests that Will Howard has a little bit better decision making than he had in the final minute or so in that regular season game. And Eugene, what's your outlook for Ohio State's quarterback today? He got absolutely he's getting docked. He had a monster game against Oregon.

It gets completely lost that Oregon didn't give up over. I think something like 250 yards passing in any game. I could be wrong about this, but Will Howard had by far the best game of the season against Oregon that anybody has had. He had a huge performance and was great.

Everything clicked. The only thing that didn't was his clock management in the final few seconds there. So, you know, he's he's having a great year. But his his mistakes get magnified a thousand fold because he's the Ohio State quarterback.

He'll be fine. It really is about the line. The first matchup, Oregon beat up the Ohio State defensive front. I kind of think the Ohio State defensive front comes in with a pretty bad attitude on this. You guys aren't doing that to us again.

So I think this is all about the trenches. And again, Oregon facing underappreciated, you know, still undefeated. You know, they did whatever they wanted against the Penn State defense is obviously pretty good. They beat Ohio State.

If they win this, they're good enough to win the national title. Pete, as always, we value the information and I appreciate you making yourself available on New Year's Day. I would say this is your Super Bowl, but you don't care about the NFL. This is all about college football. Happy New Year, my friend.

I appreciate you taking the time. Oh, I cared about the NFL until my fantasy team flamed out. Of course, Pete, nobody cares about your fantasy team. You know that. Yes, they do. Everybody does, and they should. Thank you, my friend.

Happy New Year. Pete Futek, collegefootballnews.com. One other thing to factor into your viewing habits. These college football playoff games have more commercials and longer half-times. Why?

To get more commercials in the rotation. So I mentioned they had gone to the half in Atlanta. They're still at intermission, as we sometimes say, with Texas cruising past Arizona State at 17-3. I threw in Ohio State because I can't wait to get home to check out what's going to happen in the game of the day. The game of this playoff so far. Rematch of that one-point game at Oudson Stadium. Pete offering context. I've been crushing Will Howard because I focused, like many people did, on the last 90 seconds of the game.

But overall, he balled out, albeit in a losing effort. So we've got that to look forward to. And I can tell you, as an embedded reporter on the ground here in Southern California, the weather is improving.

Marine layer has burned off last check. Plenty of blue skies above the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. That is going to cap my run, being a guest host, dating back to last week. Four outstanding opportunities that I take seriously every time. And I appreciate you putting up with my act, as my Blessed Mother says.

Honey, you are an acquired taste. So as we go through all the people, I want to acknowledge and thank, starting with Rich Eisen, who believes, like Bill Belichick once said, no days off, no days off. simulcast back tomorrow. Jerry Sobelowitz, Bruce Gilbert, all of my friends at Westwood One. My good friend and our skilled technical producer, Art Martinez.

My name is Brian Weber. If you follow me on the X platform, I'll continue to be working elsewhere for the rest of the week. So I hope you'll consider spending some more time with us.

Happy New Year from all of us here at The Rich Eisen Show. You're spot on here. I don't think this is an overreaction because we have no idea what we're reacting to. Come react or overreact with us. Overreaction Monday. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. It's game over. Over, man.