College Football Payoff Committee Got It Wrong (Hour 1)

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Yeah. Downy Rinse & Refresh removes more odor in one wash than the leading value detergent in three washes. Find it wherever you buy laundry products. Live from the play show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb Show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming on YouTube. 855-212-4CBS is the number to jump on in. 855-212-4227. You could always get at me on the good old cesspool of Twitter or on Instagram, where I'm straight flexing at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Got Moist Mike and also Stuart Kovacs along the other way. And we're rocking and rolling all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. And we usually do not start the show with the guests right out of the gate, but when Sean Merriman hits us up and says he wants to come in studio and chat up a little football and also talk about Lights Out! Extreme Fighting, which they have a great event coming up Saturday, November 18th, Thunder Studios.

And you can watch it via Fubo Sports. We always say, of course, welcome in Sean Merriman, because if we don't bring him into the studio, I'll make the first cheesy joke of the day, then I'll probably turn the lights out on us. Sean Merriman, great to see you as always. How you been? I'm doing well, man. How about yourself?

Well, I'm doing fantastic. Always appreciate when you join us. I got to start you off with your Chargers. It's been an up and down season through the first nine weeks of the season as they get ready for the Lions this upcoming weekend. They're a 4-4 football team, but I don't feel great about them.

Where are you at with the Chargers? Well, I think that, you know, starting the season out, the expectations were high, right? If you look at their roster with Cannon Island and J.C. Jackson, who was there, and Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, you know, Derwin James, Eckler. So you're looking at this team and saying, man, these guys going to win a championship on paper. And then, you know, he's starting out and, you know, they had, in my opinion, now looking at what the Dolphins end up being, it was a tough game, right?

A shootout with 36-34. And then they followed up a couple weeks after that and put 70 on Denver. So, you know, that didn't look as bad as it did. But then they had a couple games in my opinion that dropped that they should have won. In my opinion, they should have beat the Dallas Cowboys. I thought that was easily one game for them. But what I also tried to tell people is that they have a new offensive coordinator in Kelly Moore, and they're not playing a lot of preseason games now. And so I think the expectations were so high that you got this high-powered quarterback in Justin Herbert, you know, biggest arm, strongest arm in the National Football League to come out and perform right away and start doing record-setting numbers.

And when that didn't happen, everything hit the fan. And so I feel a lot more confident in them now after watching them the other night. And I know the Jets aren't that great of a team.

I think that they still got probably one of the best defenses in the NFL. But I saw something the other night, Monday night, that I didn't see the whole entire year. I saw them having fun. I didn't see that the last, you know, five to six weeks. I haven't seen that. And so, you know, guys are having the sack dance and Tully and Bolson and going back eight, well, seven or eight sacks in that game.

I know it was against the Jets. But I saw them doing something that they didn't do an entire year, and that's playing with passion, playing fast, and playing and having fun doing it. So here's my problem with the Chargers.

On paper, everything that you just said, I agree with. They should be a great team. And I think at best this year, their ceiling is going to be making the playoffs.

And there's no progress from last year to this year. And quite frankly, I think they're going to miss the playoffs and there's going to be regression. I just watched that team and I go, there's so much talent.

There's so many guys that I should want to root for and that should be playing at a high level. And I just put it back to coaching. How much is it that Brandon Staley just doesn't have it and he's just not ready to be the head coach right now? I said this and he came out in his last press conference, not this past game, but the game they lost before.

And he put everything on his shoulders because there was no other person to put it on. You can't sit up here and keep blaming Justin Herbert because he's had three or four offensive coordinators since he's been in the league, what, three, four years now. And we know what he's capable of doing. With all the switching of the coordinators, he still has broken numerous records. He's still setting records left and right. We know what he's capable of doing.

Keenan Island, still one of the best wide receiver in the national league. It was stupid. That, I mean, it was ridiculous. But we know what he's capable of doing. Obviously Mike Williams going down at that knee.

It affected them and hurt them a bit. But once they start getting Quentin, Quentin Johnston, a new kid from TCU, once they get him in a mix, this is going to give them another weapon on offense. Brandon Staley, I'll say this. I'm not, I don't agree with that. All the fourth and one calls and I don't agree with all of those.

But one thing I will say is he's a really good leader and he finds a way to lead. The only problem I've always had with Brandon Staley is everything is not data driven, right? Football is not played with data and numbers. Football is played with emotion and passion and being able to pin your ears back, go out there and get after whoever has the football in their hands.

That part I thought was missing a little bit. And when you have an offensive coordinator like Kellen Moore who come in and we know he draws up explosive plays, but the defense has given up a whole lot. They wasn't playing with a lot of energy and it was like a trickling effect of, you know, everyone coming in and saying, let's get rid of Staley, let's do this, let's do that.

And no real plan of action, right? And so having that win against the Jets, they go out and if you look at their schedule, it's favorable. I think the Ravens they got coming up is going to be a tough game.

The Bills going to be a tough game. But if you look at their schedule from here on out, they can run a table if they play at that level. The problem is with them is what team is going to show up. And that's me, I'm at every home game.

I'm there, I still obviously run an organization a lot. It's just if the team that we all think they are show up, no one's going to beat them. The problem is what team is going to show up. Let's just say the team that you expect them to be doesn't happen. At the end of the year, they're looking for a new coach. Would you want Bill Belichick coaching this team next year if it's available? No.

Why not? No, I think that you ever heard of the term of a guy that's playing too long when it's time to retire? Like he's just overplaying, overstaying what he's done.

There's nothing wrong. Bill Belichick was great for two decades, two decades of football. And he hasn't had the tools in having another, not even, it would never be another Tom Brady, but at least a capable quarterback that can go out and perform.

He hasn't had the NAMAC over there. But I think the coaching time for Bill Belichick in this age, day and age, has passed him. And I'm not saying he can't be a good coach somewhere else. I'm just saying that it's a new breed of athletes to come in. And I said the same thing about the coach for Denver, Sean Payton. When he called out Russell Wilson and doing... I love Sean Payton as a coach.

I would love to play for him. But in this day and age, times are different. Guys can't handle you getting on them in public. Guys can't handle sometimes that style of coaching. And nowadays with these guys, you have to have a more personal approach. It's the reason why McDaniels is doing well out there in Miami. He's very personable.

He can relate to a lot of these guys. And sometimes when you have a Sean Payton, Bill Belichick, that's been great for so long, the game can sometimes pass you by in the way you coach. Your style of coaching, the way you go about things are a lot different now than it was 10, 15 years ago. The reason why I bring up Belichick is because we saw Brady a few years ago, where he knew New England didn't have the roster anymore. Where they could still go win 10, 11, 12 games and they weren't going anywhere. And I feel as if when you look at Belichick, I still believe he could coach.

Now I think there's a limited window how much longer you go. He is 71 and you bring up valid points. The Patriot way isn't for everybody, but you go to this Charger team. They're loaded with talent and they're missing that great coach.

That's why I thought it would be a good fit. No, look, I'm not saying, and by the way, I would never say a great coach is not great anymore. I mean, you can coach until you're 90 if you can coach.

If you're healthy and you got the energy to do it. My thing is, is that I think that when, when Sean McVay came in, it really opened up everyone's eyes into the younger, the more relatable style coaches, player friendly player friendly. They can get you to play for them.

I'll use Dan Campbell's one. Dan Campbell is a prime example of, of getting your guys to play for you, Nick Sirianni, the same way, the same way, getting your guys to play for you. And so again, I played against Bill Belichick for a long time, and I know how great of a coach he is.

But when you talk about this day and age in the game, the time is changed tremendously. So to expect Bill Belichick to come, even with the talent and the roster that the Chargers have, and not, let's not talk about the money he's going to ask for. Let's let's, you know, the money he's going to ask for is going to be more than the Chargers. Spandau's family may say, no thanks.

I said it, you did it. They're not going, they're not going out and splurging. Let's say that. But also too, I think that if you're going to replace them, I think that they have somebody on staff. I think Kellen Moore can step in there and be a good head coach. I think that that could have been a move the whole entire time if Brandon Staley didn't, you know, kind of turn over a new leaf, but let's see what the rest of this season hold because so many people will start, will yell, let's fire, let's hire, let's do this. But who?

Who, right? You go out and you make another big acquisition. You bring somebody else in and they don't pan out.

Then what? Right now you got a new head coach, new offensive coordinator, all these people with a star quarterback and a star team that you're going to end up wasting because you thought that this was the right move. So if you're going to hire, and I said the same thing with Benamee, right?

And with the commanders. I played for Ron Revere. Ron Revere is a great coach, great person, and great man. But if they get move on from Ron at any point in time, it's going to be Benamee. Interesting. I don't think it would be.

I think that's the only way. I think that's the only reason why he, why would you, you know, in my opinion, why would you leave the Kansas City Chiefs and the team that you have down and you won championship with? You got the greatest quarterback in football and possibly can go down as one of the best of all time. Why would he leave that position he's in to go to the commanders? Because as crazy as it sounds, and there could be legs for him to be the head coach and I think he should get a head coaching job. He was in Kansas City and he did everything that he could and he wasn't getting anywhere closer in this crazy hiring cycle to getting the job. So I think he felt, even if he won't say this, that he had to leave the Chiefs. So he has the total control of the offense and doesn't have Patrick Mahomes because they kept on using excuse after excuse why to not hire this guy when he absolutely should have got a head coaching job a few years ago. Heck, if Josh McDaniels, who I like, got a second head coaching job after what happened in Denver and we saw what happened with the Raiders, how the heck does the enemy not get a job?

Listen, I mean, that's a whole other beast. First of all, I never understood how a head coach had no success somewhere and to have another head coach job somewhere, right? If you are decent and you have- Show some signs. Yeah, if you show some signs- Like even Belichick when he was in Cleveland, one time made the playoffs, won a playoff game against Parcells. There were signs, even though the overall tenure wasn't wonderful.

No question about it. And, you know, I played, you know, Wade Phillips, right? Great, great coach. And, you know, he's won a certain place or whatever, but he was also looked at as questionably not that great of a head coach.

I thought he was, but the same thing with the enemy, same thing with Kellen Moore. I think these guys are next in line and there's no reason to bring them in if you're not going to give them that opportunity. Two other coordinators that I like, Ben Johns with the Lions and Luanna Rumo with the defensive coordinator for Cincinnati Bengals, but just going for a big splashy name with the scandal now pending at Michigan, Harbaugh, who knows how many games are going to hit him with the suspension. He'll probably get an injunction. We'll be able to get that stay and not miss any games this year. I think this is setting up for Harbaugh to go back to the NFL in a place, by the way, where the guy in four years as head coach with the 49ers, three NFC championship games with the Super Bowl appearance.

No, no, that could be somebody, but then guess what happens? You know, Harbaugh is going to come in and bring his own guys. Yeah, that's a good point. So he's going to come in and bring in, rightfully so, he's going to come in and bring in the team. As he should.

As he should. That means you're in the fifth offensive coordinator for your star quarterback. That to me doesn't make any sense, right? Now, if they decide to keep Kellen Moore there, Kellen Moore wants to stay there and they go to Jim Harbaugh and they want to do that, I think that makes more sense. But if he comes in, bring his whole entire new staff, new coaches on both sides of the ball, right, offense and defense, you're asking them to learn something completely new when you just made another adjustment.

You can't do that. And I always try to use these examples when you're talking about like a regular job, right, a corporate. If every year you come in, there's a new dress code, there's a new clock in, clock out, a new system, platform you got to learn every single year, you're probably not going to be that great at your job. And that's what's been happening with the charges. Wrap it up with Sean Merriman, we'll talk about lights out extreme fighting in just a second. I want to ask you about the Jets and like you have a defensive player view. The Jets defense is awesome. The Jets defense is really talented, but an offense without Aaron Rodgers, Zach Wilson is terrible.

Now, where are they going to go to? Tim Boyle? They have Trevor Simeon, right? But if you're a defensive player with clout in a locker room, like a Quinn and Williams or a sauce garden, and you had clout in the locker room, would you go to Robert Sala and say, coach, I know we don't know anything about the other guys and they're not probably any good, but we got to give them a chance because Zach just isn't the dude.

I think they got more problems on offense than just Zach Wilson. I actually don't think he's that bad of a player. Now I've seen some because we've seen signs of him actually being able to deliver good footballs. You know, we can also tell that Aaron Rodgers kind of been rubbing off for him a little bit in a way. If you look at his interviews, you just listen to him and watch how he functions. It's completely different than who he was last year.

So there's growth. No doubt about that. They're not blocking. Yeah, the line's terrible.

They're terrible. People forget how did Aaron Rodgers get hurt in the first place? By getting hit. No one blocked. It was one person hit him when he towards Achilles. But if you look at that brief, there were three people around him ready to hit him at the same time.

They wouldn't block in the soul. And so if you get an inexperienced quarterback who we deem as not that great in the first place and say, hey, we want you to be Aaron Rodgers. Well, you're not. Aaron Rodgers can overcome a bad offensive line. Aaron Rodgers can overcome a bad system. Aaron Rodgers can overcome these things. Zach Wilson cannot. I would say that if they were able to give a really good offensive line that we will finally see and people will finally see that Zach Wilson can actually play. And that's the reason why he hasn't been benched yet because as a defensive player, trust me, if we felt like there was the guy behind him that can go out and play better than him, you get four or five stars in your defense.

You go to coach Solano. So you say, hey, look, we want him to start. We're going out playing our asses off and we just need a little bit of help. We think that that is the guy you think for Robert being the players coach that he is, that he's not going to listen to those five guys. He is.

But I feel like right now, Zach Wilson may be their best chance because they realize they have bigger holes in that offense than just Zach Wilson. Sean Merriman here with us. So sign stealing.

I think this is a fascinating conversation because you have Ohio State and Penn State fans up in arms. I feel as if a lot of the former athletes that I talked to go, yeah, did they go about it the right way? No, but in reality, sign stealing is not that big of a deal. You played. I'm sure you've been on teams that had the other team signs and all that because it's been part of the game.

How do you react to what's happening? I played against the Patriots my whole career. Sign stealing was just a just a startup for them. That was nothing. I remember we couldn't leave certain parts of our playbooks or plays game plans in a hotel because we heard that they had maids come to clean up and taking our plays. And this is all real. There was told to us while we were there. So that part of it's real. I just think that this is overblown, man.

And if there wasn't so much pressure from the media and then people outside the building, this wouldn't be a big deal. We all know and understand that there's three signal callers on the sideline. And the reason why there's three is because we're all as players looking to the sideline to see what signal call is matching it up to what they're starting to do, right? So if the defense or offense is out there yelling out of color and we see this guy sitting up and he's holding up five and he's doing certain things with his hand, you're right there in front of me.

Of course, I'm going to look. And if I can pick up a signal, if I can pick up any kind of consistency of a hand movement or call, whether it's a strong left or right, if I start hearing them, a lot of teams will start yelling out states that were on the east coast or west coast. If I pick up anything during that game, I'm taking it. And so I think that the public and the media is putting so much pressure on this deal that Michigan had to go out and do something about it. But everybody know to play the game.

If you find a way that you see that guy in the middle out of those three guys, and he is the one that's calling the plays in second quarter, guess who we're looking at? You can call it still and all you want to do something else about it. I don't think that this is a big deal. I think it's very, very over-exaggerated and what happened now, you can go about how they went on the road games and they did, you know, they, they crazy stuff. Yeah. They, they, you know, I think more is going to come out in the investigation. They'll see like how much detail that they went into, you know, into the science still in, but anybody that think that they're calling those signs on the sideline and the guys don't look, or they're not listening. It's crazy.

Wrap it up with Sean Merriman. Before we let you run, tell me a little bit about Lights Out Extreme Fighting and this next chapter, the next fight that you guys come out. Yeah, we got a huge fight in Long Beach.

Lights Out Extreme fighting 12. We got a big, big card, man. A couple of these guys I think will probably leave us and go to UFC after this fight. Victor Rosas is there headlining us. You know, we got Tommy Aaron, who's Tony Ferguson's guy on the card as well. Aubin Rallis is, fought in the UFC before he's on his car fighting Ramos, who's out of Nick and Nick Diaz's camp. So I expect Nick or Nate to be at the fight.

Also Tony Ferguson as well. This one's going to be big. November 18th. You guys got to watch this. We'll be live on Fubo Sports, Fubo TV. You don't want to miss this one. And for me, it's fun because we know we have the next up and coming superstars. So I can look, you know, down the fight card, like, okay, yeah, this, this guy's gone. That guy, well, she's gone.

You know, she's going to go to UFC. So it's been, it's been really fun for me. Well, not only that in the scouting department, I also hear your son's turned into quite the football player, eighth grade. Yeah. I was, you know, he just made a New Jersey all-star team.

Appreciate it. And you know, they got the, the last year they won the nationals. Their first game was December 5th. Yeah.

He plays quarterback, wide receiver, and they got him playing corner, cornerback some, even though he won't hit a soul, but he's not made for defense. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I told him, I said, look, that's right. No, I said, if you hit somebody, I'm running onto the field. They're going to drag me off.

Cause I don't, I don't believe you'll hit anybody. That's amazing. Sean Merriman, best of luck. Make sure you check it out on FUBO Sports. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. It is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll come on back. When we return, we'll react to the latest college football playoff rankings from last night.

All right. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Busy Wednesday show. Devin McCourty is going to stop by at 5 20 PM Eastern, 2 20 PM Pacific. We'll get his reaction to the first nine weeks of the season from the NBC Sports analysts and also former New England Patriots safety via Rutgers.

So a whole lot cooking on this Wednesday. I got to get to the latest college football playoff rankings from last night. I thought there was going to be some movement because you know that this is done for TV.

You know that this is done for reaction. I thought the committee would move Georgia up to one. I also thought that there was a chance they put Alabama in front of Texas, which I'm glad that they did it because it would make no sense when they had the same record in Texas beat Alabama head to head while you would move Alabama in front of Texas.

But you know, whenever Alabama, even when they look like they were dead and they found the way the last few weeks to keep their season alive and then make that dominant statement up against LSU. And even though LSU has fallen to 19 heading into last week, they were in the top 15 and Alabama already beat Ole Miss, who was also in the top 15. The committee a week ago told you the reason why Ohio State was number one was because they were the only team to have two top 15 victories at the time when they did take care of Notre Dame. And they also with the Ohio State had that victory up against Penn State. So they keep Georgia in at number one, even though now Notre Dame is outside of the top 15 as they in the latest rankings were number 20. So really, I look at the committee and I just still, I guess I could understand why you put Ohio State one. But if you watch the games, it's tough to believe that you're going to win the game. It's tough to believe that Ohio State's the number one team in the country. Because you look at, I'll just highlight three games, the game against Notre Dame, they should not have won that game. Now you could say Zach, it doesn't matter what should have happened.

We talked about what did happen. But when you look back at that Notre Dame game, it does fit into really what this Ohio State team is, where their defense is the story. And their defense is really good. You have the best non quarterback in the country in Marvin Harrison Jr. But outside of that, it ain't all that impressive with the Ohio State Buckeyes this year. And maybe Kyle McCord will save his best game for last up against Michigan coming up on Thanksgiving weekend. But in that game up against Notre Dame, he threw what should have been picked off.

And sometimes you get a fortuitous bounce, sometimes you get a break. But he threw a ball that was an easy interception that would have lost him the game. And we all know what happened in the final play of the game. Notre Dame only had 10 people on the field.

That's sloppy preparation, that's sloppy execution by the Fighting Irish. And to Ohio State's credit, they did take advantage of it. But I just look at Ohio State, they do not feel as if they are, I don't feel as if they're the number one team in the country. And I've said this before, I think there are five teams right now better than Ohio State. I think Georgia beat Ohio State if they played tomorrow. I think Michigan would beat them if they played tomorrow. I think Washington would beat them. I think Oregon would beat them. Florida State would be a close game, but I've seen a certain toughness from Florida State's quarterback in Jordan Travis that I've not seen from Kyle McCord this year. And when you continue on with Ohio State, yeah, they were better than Penn State.

No question, absolutely. But it was their defense. Offensively, if Penn State had any resemblance of an offense during that game, and they knew how to coach, and they trusted Drew Alomar, which I don't get why they didn't in that game, Ohio State could have easily lost that game.

But they didn't. And then last week, it's tough to say that you should be the number one team in the country, when at halftime, Rutgers has your number. Rutgers is having a solid season. This is not a shot at Rutgers.

For Rutgers standards, they're having a really good season under Greg Ciano. But when you have to grind it out through the first 30 minutes and then have it be a game in the third quarter, I know they pulled away late so you could dress it up as a better win than what it actually was, that just does not scream to me as a team that I already had questions about that they should still be number one. And Georgia should be number one until they go down, even with the Brock Bowers injury, it has not impacted them. I know you could say, well, who is Georgia really played? Georgia's game last weekend, I'll give them credit because that Missouri team finally has their damn act together, and they did a nice job.

It was a good game. The game of the week prior, they blew out Florida. Kentucky, Kentucky was in the top 25 when they played.

They blew out Kentucky 51 to 13. So for Georgia, who has a big game this weekend up against Ole Miss, and then they play Tennessee. And let's just look at the rankings right here real quickly. When you have Ole Miss in at number nine and then Tennessee is in at 13 in the college football playoff rankings. If Georgia wins both of those games, just heading into the final week of the season, how are you going to keep Georgia off that number one spot?

Where if you look at Ohio State before the Michigan game, they have Michigan State and Minnesota. So if you're telling me, like, let's just look at this, Georgia compared to Ohio State. If you're telling me that the reason why Ohio State last week was at number one was because they have the two top 15 victories. Well, then for the Georgia Bulldogs, they would have had defeated already Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee if they win these next two games. And those are three teams right now that are in the top 25. And that when you look at it right now, we're in the top 15 because Missouri is also at 14 right now. So Georgia is a better team than Ohio State. Georgia should be number one.

And I think a lot of us would agree. And to be fair, you judge it based off this year, Michigan really hasn't played anybody. But Michigan's going to beat Ohio State this year. There's no doubt in my mind about that. I just think Michigan all around is a better team.

But you know what my biggest gripe is actually with the committee? And I say this as someone that's a big fan of Mike Norvell, a big fan of Jordan Travis, a big fan of Jared verse and what Florida State has done. The thing I don't get the most is how Washington is in there at at number five. If you look at all these teams that's in front of Washington, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, Florida State, nobody has a better win than Washington. Washington beat Oregon in that crazy back and forth game, which I hope we see a rematch of the Pac-12 championship. And Oregon is sitting there in at number six. Like that Washington win up against Oregon is better than anything Ohio State has done this year, anything Georgia has done this year, anything Michigan has done this year, and anything Florida State has done this year. So I don't understand how the committee keeps on putting Washington for back to back weeks in at number five.

They should be in the top four. And you look at the Washington schedule the rest of the way, and they just came off a very good victory up against USC back and forth game after the last two weeks, those games have been close, they've been tight up against Stanford and Arizona State, but still for Washington they got a gauntlet the rest of the way. You play two top 20 teams in Utah and Oregon State and you got Washington State to wrap up the season. So there's no margin of error for Washington and I just hope that whoever wins the Pac-12 doesn't have two losses because if they have two losses they're not going to get in the college football playoff. But it's crazy to me how from top to bottom the Pac-12 has been the best conference in college football this year and their two best teams are five and six and neither of them are good enough to be in the top four. It just it does not make any sense to me.

Hey real quickly I want to play this from ESPN. This was uh Boo Corrigan going back to why Ohio State is ranked over Georgia still. Listen I think the key and what in the question Reese is they're not mutually exclusive.

It's not one or the other. You know as we look through it you can tell by our rankings right now with Ohio State and the big wins they've had including last week over you know a top 20 defensive team in Rutgers in Georgia and the way they've played their games big win over Missouri. You know the other wins that they've had this year.

That's a lot of a lot of rambling that goes on when they try to justify these decisions. Ultimately here's what I think ends up happening. I do believe Michigan's going to win the big 10 so they're going to get in. I will still say Georgia wins the SEC but I'm buying more stock into Alabama. I'm going to say that Florida State is undefeated and I do kind of feel like right now in a Pac-12 championship rematch Oregon is going to beat Washington. So if I had to make a guess today on who the four teams would be in the order.

Actually I'll give you an order. I'll say Georgia's won Michigan's two. I guess Florida State would be three and then Oregon would be four and maybe you could flip-flop Florida State and Oregon but that's what I think your four teams are going to be.

Now here are the two things that I'm most fascinated by to look for. What happens if Georgia's undefeated before the SEC title game and they lose to Alabama in the SEC title game? Are you keeping Georgia out of the playoff with one loss?

That's something. The other thing is I just sent you the scenario Washington Oregon who right now have five and six. They have that rematch of the Pac-12 championship game and if it goes I just predicted Oregon beat Washington the second time around and let's say they win by three points. What do you do with Washington if they are undefeated going into that Pac-12 championship game and they lose to Oregon who they already beat and they lose to the Pac-12 championship game by like let's say three points again or a touchdown or less? Those are the two things to monitor and I know other scenarios will determine if you could get two SEC teams in, if you could get two Pac-12 teams in as well and it's what other dominoes are going to fall and who's going to kick themselves out of the picture but those are two things I'll be fascinated by because could you imagine if Georgia who's won the last two national championships goes undefeated the regular season and then in the SEC championship game they lose in a close game to Alabama.

You know the committee's going to do everything in their power to try to put Georgia in the college football playoff but will there be a justification to knock one of those teams out? All righty we'll take a break here when we do come on back we got a little uh preview on the NFL slate for this upcoming weekend as we start to flip the page to week 10 which kicks off tomorrow with that wonderful Thursday night football game. Trust me guys we're not previewing the Thursday night football game when we come on back Justin Fields is out so Tyson Bajan is going to start once again going up against the Carolina Panthers but there's two games this weekend that I'm just curious to see for both of these teams in these two matchups how they're going to play and how they're going to perform because truly I think it's a coin flip and these games could go either way. Update time first here he is the Ackman Rich Ackerman. All righty this is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio and it's time to ask the pros where you the listener gets asked us a question brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts simply tweet your question at CBS Sports Radio or at Zach Gelb z-a-c-h-g-e-l-b using the hashtag ask the pros and be listening later in the show when we might answer your question think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Two things for this upcoming weekend in the NFL and you take a look at the slate tomorrow is going to be a snoozefest between the Carolina Panthers and the Chicago Bears Colts and Patriots in Germany on Sunday not a lot of interest Texans Bengals could be a good game Saints and Vikings and like yeah record wise sure two five and four teams but do you get really that pumped up for Josh Dobbs against Derek Carr maybe the Josh Dobbs storyline a little bit intriguing Packers Steelers boring game but two legendary franchises Tennessee against Tampa Will Levitz against Baker Mayfield and Browns and Ravens that's going to be an excellent game with those two defenses and this is a lot of pressure this week on Deshaun Watson going up against Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens Falcons and Cardinals okay return to Kyler Murray a little intrigue there and then what's going to happen here with another week of Taylor Ham Heinecke starting Giants and Cowboys that's going to be a slaughter fest especially with Daniel Jones now being out for the year and they announced that Tommy DeVito is starting once again Commander Seahawks probably going to be a sloppy game Jets and Raiders by condolences to everyone in America that has to watch that game and then you have the Broncos and the Bills on Monday night that's another snoozefest but the two games I left out and these are probably the two games I'm most fired up to see this weekend you know you could make a case Browns and Ravens as well but these two games I truly don't have a feel as to which team is going to win I think both teams have major statements to make you look at the 49ers and the Jaguars the 49ers are coming off a bye week the 49ers have just lost three games in a row and you go up against a Jacksonville team who's six and two and we could all acknowledge that the Jaguars are a good team but is the Jaguar ceiling just being a good team where you could get into the playoffs like you did last year well you'll easily win that division and then you could win a playoff game but when you get to the second round are you just still a year or two away and when you have a window where you're making the playoffs in back-to-back years what the Jaguars are going to do you got to pounce it's go time because as we've seen in Buffalo right where Buffalo they made the playoffs with Terrod Taylor then they missed the playoffs then they get Josh Allen once Josh Allen figures it out after one bad season they start to take over inside the AFC especially when Brady leaves and Brady goes to Tampa to start that 2020 season the Bills are right there and the Bills had some extremely tough losses in the postseason early on and we were all like all right the Bills will eventually get one and now look like look where we're at with the Buffalo Bills we all talk about the Bills as man has their window closed as their their best moments are they behind them and they're looking at them in the rear view mirror so for the Jaguars in theory you have a long window here because of your coach Doug Peterson there's no questions about him because of your quarterback and Trevor Lawrence he's really good but you never know what's going to happen like you look at that division that division isn't good but CJ Stroud right now he's really happening with the Texans so that freedom that you have in the division may not be as long and the way that we thought it was heading into the season and also for the Jaguars yeah I guess you could now call that win up against the Steelers a good win you know the win up against the Bills sure it's a good win but the Bills and the Steelers are no threats this year and you go through their schedule Jacksonville they beat the Colts where they were once trailing and they had to come from behind to get that W they lose to the Chiefs they lose to the Texans they beat the Falcons they beat the Bills they beat the Colts they beat the Saints they beat the Steelers they don't really have a marquee victory on their schedule and I've said this before about Jacksonville that week to performance against Kansas City where I remember I was filling in on this show it was over the summer and Maggie goes how far would you go with the Jacksonville Jaguars I'm like I think they could go to an AFC Championship this game you know AFC Championship game this year I was bullish on the Jags I was a believer in the Jags I called them a dark horse to potentially get to the Super Bowl before the start of the season but you got Kansas City in week two when Kansas City was quote-unquote vulnerable just getting Travis Kelce back just getting Chris Jones back and it's not as if Kansas City put up this ridiculous number on the scoreboard and you lost in a shootout they only put up 17 points I really thought the Jags and I was a believer in the Jags I picked the Jags so in that game I plus the points on the Jacksonville Jaguars in that game and I ended up losing the bet but that was a game for me that said I got to put a pause on the Jaguars because even though the Jaguars are a good team I can't put them in a level of greatness if they're really non-competitive up against Kansas City in a game where Kansas City wasn't even all that competitive because if you would have said to me before that to me before that game Kansas City only scored 17 points I would have said how many points did Jaguars win by and Jacksonville didn't even get a touchdown in that game they only scored a lousy nine points so that's a game this weekend for the 49ers you lose this one even though you get the benefit of the doubt we're all going to look at you and say all right now Deebo's back you got healthier you're coming off the bye and you're five and four think about that if the 49ers lose this weekend you go from some dopes in the media which had no chance of ever happening saying oh the 49ers could go undefeated this year to then before we even serve out some lasagna or santor does carve out the turkey and carve up some turkey you could have the 49ers already with four losses and for the Jaguars you win this game it's a huge statement you go to seven and two you beat one of the better teams in the NFC and maybe that starts to turn heads on the way that we think about them but if you lose it's like you're six and three and I think you're just a good team not a great team now the other game is Lions and Chargers I lean Lions in this game the Lions are only a three-point favorite but I think the Lions who are one of the better teams in the NFC they're a top three team in the NFC they just got smacked against the Ravens then they go back home they beat the Raiders if you can't beat the Raiders you just got no luck and then now you have a match up with the Chargers so it's like you're better than the Chargers the Chargers though are no slouches and maybe they're sort of put things together for the Lions you lose this game and then I think we start to have conversations about the Lions like who do they also really beat they beat Kansas City in week one didn't have Chris Jones didn't have Travis Kelce they lost to the Seahawks in overtime sure they beat the Falcons the Packers the Panthers the Bucks in terms of wins then you lose to the Ravens they beat the Raiders you lose this game the Chargers and the Chargers aren't even a good win it just brings up the questions once again similar to the Jaguars are Lions just a good team and not a great team and for the Chargers maybe you start to earn back the public trust this week by getting a win against a team that people perceive is better than you in the Detroit Lions because for this Chargers team they are lucky absolutely lucky to be four and four right now because you you may forget against the Vikings and the Raiders they had those two games where Staley went for it like a dope didn't get it back in his own end inside his own 30-35 yard line if it wasn't for the incompetence of Josh McDaniels having Aaron O'Connell throw the ball at the three when he had Josh Jacobs and then Kirk Cousins throw an interception as well off a bounce you would have lost both those games too and you would have been out of it so this is a week for the Chargers you beat the Lions maybe we start to get back in on Los Angeles Chargers coming up next contender pretender inside the first nine weeks of football season.