6-Team Playoffs Would Have Been Awesome (Hour 1)

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$10 minimum per order. Additional term supply. 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 Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates. Coming up hour 20 from now, outside linebacker for the LA Rams, an incredible story, Byron Young, who at one point did work at a Dollar General store. And now is a rookie linebacker in the NFL.

So you don't want to miss that conversation. And then at 5 20 p.m. Eastern to 20 p.m. Pacific, a man that is dominating the NFL and a team that has been one of the better stories in the league this year. Houston Texans third overall pick from this past NFL draft. Will Anderson Jr. will join us.

Whole lot to do today. Moist Mike, welcome back. Big Mike CBS back in the building.

Also Stuart Kovacs as well along the other way. We're here all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. All righty. We got to continue the college football playoff conversation.

Yesterday, I told you I understood what the committee did. Is it rotten? Is it unfortunate? Is it horrible for Florida State?

Absolutely. But I view that team differently, even being a big backer of the Seminoles, even before the season started without Jordan Travis. So I thought to myself, how do we change this?

How do we make this better? And if you listen to the show, I've made myself abundantly clear that I absolutely despise that the college football playoff next year is going to be 12 teams. And I think it's unfortunate that it's going to 12 because in all the sports, the best regular season is college football. It means something each and every time you step foot on the field and then either play or watch your team play in the game and going to 12. My fear is that it devalues the regular season to some extent devalues the conference championship games as well. And the week to week grind that we love and the week to week sprint that we love of college football doesn't fade away. But it provides too many soft landing spots for teams that I don't need to no longer see.

So I understand I've already lost the argument like money is going to win out. Money is already won out and they are going to 12 teams, whether I like it or not, next year for the 2024 regular season. But with that being said, I have been accepting of expanding the playoff to six or eight teams. And for a while, I was at stay at four.

Then I thought about going to eight. And we used to give this formula of, OK, have your power five conference champs. They get in out of the eight. Then you have one spot for the non power five best conference champion and then two wildcard spots. But really, with one power five conference going away in the Pac 12, as everyone has dashed to either the ACC, the Big 12 or the Big Ten, only two schools remain in the in the Pac 12. And we'll see what eventually happens with that conference. You're really only going to have four conference champions moving forward into the future and maybe eventually truncated to three with the never ending changes of college football.

That should get an automatic bid. So giving only a going from five power five conferences to then only four power conferences. It makes me move away from wanting an 18 playoff. And most years we sit here and I understand this may not be the popular opinion today, but I do think it's the right opinion.

Most years we don't have a Florida State situation. Most years, whenever we've gone to four teams, there's not been a need to see teams five, six, seven and eight. So I do start to believe and I've already and I'll stick by this that 12 is too rich, 12 is too much.

I'm starting to think eight is too much as well. Like, look how long we've had to go for. Finally, the person that's been all about expanding from four to finally have somewhat of a victory lap and finally be able to say, oh, you're wrong. And now we need to change the college football playoff. And it's great that they're going to 12.

Well, all I ask is this. If you are someone that you believe going to 12 is right, circle back next year. And are you only happy that we got to 12 because it gives a school like Ole Miss or Penn State an invite to the dance? Is that where your motivation is or did it make the sport better?

And I don't think it makes a sport better. So when I go through these options in this fun world to just talking about on the radio, stay at four, go to six, go to eight, go to 12. Going to six is the best option.

And it's even proven true this year that six would be the perfect number because it gives you insurance. It doesn't take away from the regular season. It doesn't take away too much from conference championship weekend. And having one of the power five conferences go away. We don't need to then have five automatic bids because, like, five automatic bids going to your conference champs. Well, then you only leave one wildcard spot for the non-conference champion.

That can get a little hairy. But with this going to four main conferences, it's simple what you could do moving forward. Have four of the power conferences, whoever wins those conference championships, they get into the playoff and then you have two wildcard spots.

And I think that is phenomenal. And I know that's not the case this year because of the fact that there's five power five conferences. But if you had a six team playoff this year, it doesn't take away from the regular season. It doesn't take away from conference championship weekend. And it doesn't feel like we have any teams possible that we've already seen enough and we don't need to see again. So in the six team field, let's say Zach Gelb was the commissioner of college football, which actually wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. You would have Michigan and Washington having buys and then your first two first round games. It would be this year, Florida State against Alabama.

Hello. We'll get to determine who really does belong. And then you would also get Texas going up against Georgia. Like, I don't need to see anything more than that.

I don't need to see. No offense to Oregon. I love their program. Oregon, you lost twice to Washington. I don't need to see you play any more football this year. You look at a school like Ohio State. You had three games on your schedule. And Penn State isn't the toughest competition. Notre Dame is a solid program, good program. And then in the biggest game of the year, you lost to Michigan. And we saw your biggest problem get exposed in Kyle McCord not being good enough.

So I really do believe six provides a little bit of insurance. It still makes the regular season matter. And then it still makes conference championship weekend matter. So I am now the line of thinking that six teams for the college football playoff would be the best. But going to 12 next year, what it does is that's just the start of ruining the regular season, which is the preeminent regular season in all sports right now of the college football schedule. And also taking away the importance of the conference championship. But I know you could say, oh, well, your conference championship, you get to buy the new format, all that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But when you have a race to 12 teams, it's going to do two things. It's going to give us life to three law schools.

I don't need to see three law schools in a playoff. And not only that, this is just the beginning. This is just the start. It's 12 now. What are we going to eventually make this 16, 18, 20?

It's only going to augment. So to make that rush from four to 12 makes no sense. And that's why Zach Gelb, you know, I was running college football.

I would then just go from four to six for the multitude of reasons that I just laid on out. And you know what it kind of reminds me of? It kind of reminds me a little bit of Major League Baseball when they added that extra wildcard spot. I know they've since changed the format once again. But Major League Baseball, when they had, right, your four teams that get in the one wildcard spot, then you made another wildcard spot and you had them play up against each other before the real postseason started. That's kind of, I was using that format and that's worked really well with Major League Baseball. And they shouldn't have gone away from it.

I don't love this new format now. But that was kind of the impetus in trying to figure out how do you still reward a little bit of a buy and a little bit of a right to the best two teams in the country. And then how do you add some schools but not add too many schools? And that's what I came up with. And usually I would gloss pass six because you would have five power five conference champs. But with the Pac-12 going bye bye, going from four to six and only needing to reward the four power conferences, and then having two wildcard spots in essence, that's the best thing for the sport.

It really is. And it is the best of both worlds where you appease the crowd that wants expansion. But then for like people like me that are anti-expansion because of the fear that it's going to ruin the regular season, you only expand the playoff in a very minor margin and it provides the committee the ability to have some insurance on a year like this, which is an anomaly, but it can happen where all hell breaks loose when you have Georgia go down to Alabama, when Florida State is undefeated as the ACC champ, you have Texas as a one loss Big 12 champ, you have Michigan undefeated as the Big 10 champ, and you have Washington undefeated as the Pac-12 champ. Because we get back to that conversation of most deserving and who's the best. And really, it's become a Venn diagram to get to four of who's also the four best teams and who's also the most deserving.

And when you combine them all together, that's where you go. You know, I still think Georgia is one of the four best teams in the country. But Georgia didn't have in this format the deserving case to get in because they weren't the SEC champion. And you had someone like Florida State who the committee tells you is not better than Alabama. But then they're better than Georgia. And I know that sometimes the rankings after you get to four, it's really irrelevant.

Like who's five, who's six, who's seven in this 14 format. I don't think anyone actually believes if you're going to tell me Alabama has to get in because Bama would beat Florida State tomorrow, that if Florida State played Georgia, that Florida State would beat Georgia. But that's what the ranking said.

So I think six is great. And this year, when you look at the rankings, it's the perfect cutoff. And I know Oregon fans may say, oh, what about us?

Ohio State fans may say, what about us? I don't think anyone would be saying in a six team format that Ohio State got screwed or Oregon got screwed unless you are a fan of Ohio State or Oregon. If you're looking at this from an objective manner, you put two extra teams in the playoffs, you make it six. It doesn't water down the regular season. It doesn't water down conference championship weekend.

And you would have a really fun playoff with only adding, in essence, one extra round and one minor extra round being added. And imagine, like, let's just say you do this next weekend and then you have the semifinal game still on the first day of the year. And then the national championship game on the on January 8th, that Monday. Imagine next weekend we had, after all this debate, Alabama playing Florida State. Imagine if we had Texas playing Georgia and then the winners of those games, whoever do prevail, go on on January 1st to play Michigan, to play Washington. And then from that, you have the January 8th national championship game. I know that this has been a lot.

I know that throughout the years, people have changed their arguments on this. And originally I wanted eight. And then I said, no, four, four, four, four, four.

And I haven't moved off that. But there's been a lot of changes in college football. And when you go through all of these changes, even though it's going to twelve, I still circle back to six being the best. So here's our poll question today. How many teams should the college football playoff be? Four, six, eight or twelve. Right now, 52.9 percent of the early return say eight. 21.7 percent say twelve. 21 percent say six.

And only 4.5 percent say remain at four teams. We'll take your phone calls on this when we come on back. 855-212-4CBS. 855-212-4227. 4, 6, 8 or 12.

What would be the perfect number for the college football playoff moving forward? Also, when we come on back, Aaron Rodgers talking to ESPN, talking to Pat McAfee. And he's not happy about some of the information that's been reported in the last 24 hours about Zach Wilson and the JTS.

Jets, jets, jets. This is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio, off and running on a very busy Tuesday edition, back in five. This is underwritten by Independence American Insurance Company and produced by Independence Pet Group.

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That's Greenlight.com slash Odyssey. We'll get this to this wild story about the Jets and Zach Wilson and now Aaron Rodgers is thrown into the story and has responded to it earlier today on the Pat McAfee show in just a bit. But we opened up the show talking about what the college football playoffs should be moving forward. I know it's going to 12 next season. I think six is the perfect number. We're asking you what should be the college football playoff format? That's our poll question today. 4, 6, 8 or 12. Right now, 4.4% say 4, 20.9% say 6, 52.5% say 8 and 22.5% say 12. Let's go out to the phones.

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. Let's go to Jack in Tallahassee first up on CBS Sports Radio. What's happening, Jack? Hey, what's happening? What's happening? Nothing much.

Go ahead. Hey, I was calling about, I hear you talk about your teams, how many think you should be in the playoffs. Are you taking it considering that there's going to be close to 20 teams with each conference? That's roughly 60 to 80 teams and you only want 6 to 8 teams to run for the championship?

I don't think that's fair, but tell me what you think. Well, who right now do you need to see more of that did not get into the college football playoff outside of Florida State and Georgia? I would love to see Ohio State. Why? They're not a bad team. Their quarterback just left them.

He just hit the transfer portal. He just said, they just basically said the quarterback's not good enough. We're going to advise Kyle McCord to go elsewhere. Yeah, yeah, but, you know, anything can happen once you get in the playoffs.

We know that. Yeah, but then the regular season means nothing. And that's the best part about college football. It's the best regular season in sports. So what, is it going to become the NBA where no one gives a rat's ass about the regular season because you have 10 teams in each conference that still have a chance regardless of what happens in the regular season as long as you're in the top 10 to go make a spot in the playoffs? I think that's where we're going to have a problem with all these teams joining conferences, all these conferences because it's only going to be so many spots and you're going to have 20 teams. You're going to 12 next year.

Right. Like right now, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Right now, do we need to see Missouri, Penn State, Ole Miss, or Oklahoma play another down of football this year? Well... No, the answer's no.

You don't need to. I can't say because Missouri's not a bad team. They're not a bad team, but do you think Missouri's doing anything more than just winning one round?

If that. Yeah, yeah. You think Missouri could win multiple rounds in the college football playoff? I think they could win more than one. I think they could win one round, yes.

Well, that's not. Do you think they could win more than one round? Do you think they could win two games? It all depends on matchup. See, Jack, I appreciate the phone call, but let's be real here.

The answer is no. Outside of Florida State and Georgia, there's no need to see any other team in the country more this season that did not make the college football playoff. Ohio State, very good team, good defense. One of the best players in college football, Marvin Harrison Jr. You know what their flaw was this year? It was the quarterback. And it showed up against Michigan.

Oregon. They had two chances. They beat Washington one time. They go to the college football playoff. They couldn't beat Washington even when they were a nine-and-a-half point favorite.

Penn State, they had two games this year on their schedule. Loss, loss. I don't need to see any more of these teams. Let's go to Roger Modesto next up on CBS Sports Radio.

What's happening, Roger? Thank you. So, if you don't want to see more teams, then what do you think of the FCS format? What, when they have 24?

Yeah. Let me ask you this. When does anyone ever talk about the FCS? Well, I'm just telling you that at the end of the season, it's always indisputable. There's not always this controversy that we have every year, and we've been having it for decades now. Wait, but when has there always been controversy in the 14 format? This is the one year where someone felt like they got legitimately screwed in a 14 format. And it's going to keep happening.

Why? They go to 12 next year. It's not going to keep on happening. They go to 12 next year. They ruin it next year. You've got 133 programs in FCS, and you've got 128 in FCS.

Why not do what FCS has successfully done since 1978, have a 24 team format, first eight teams get by... Because it's not the big boys. When does anyone talk about the FCS regular season? A lot of people do. A lot of people... Who? Who are a lot of people?

I would love to know. I would love to know who those people are that talk about it. And I'm not saying just because you get overlooked and you go to a smaller school that you can't go on to have a great career, you can. But no one ever talks about the FCS regular season. No one does. Yeah, but people don't not talk about the FCS regular season because the playoff is so big. We don't talk about it because no one cares about the FCS period. So then, fair. But his point is...

Hold on, let me ask you this. Then for what we do care about, why should we use a scale and a standard for something that we don't care about to say that it would be good in this sport? So while we don't care as much or at all really about FCS regular season or really even the playoffs, what's clear is that the 2014 playoff has been successful for the FCS.

Sure. The players haven't complained about having these extra games. Some people have talked about that, all the extra games.

There hasn't been that kind of complaint. It's probably good for TV money and it's exciting for all of those. I mean, forget about it.

Absolutely. Look at high school. High school state championships, regional championships, you have 8, 12, 16 teams that battle in four brackets. So at the end of the day, why does college football, FCS, have to be different from literally every other sport that we play in America?

Because when you are, I'm just going to keep it in the football matter here, what you said, in FCS and in high school, when you're the minor leagues, the big leagues don't have to do things to make you more attractive and make it more entertaining. The NFL does it and the NFL is the biggest league. The NFL has 14 of 32 teams. Is seven and seven. And quite frankly, I think adding a seven team in the NFL on both sides, guess what?

Little breaking news when it happened, I thought it was stupid and unnecessary. Just wait till the seven seed wins. Listen, as a Patriots fan, you should be happy being a six seed all those times. I guess you guys never actually won it.

What are you talking about? We always had the five. It was the Broncos who always won as a six seed.

The Packers won as a six seed that one year with Aaron Rodgers. It happens. But that doesn't mean it's right.

That's not why they should do it. When there's 12 or 14 in the NFL, they have 32 teams as opposed to 133 in the FCS. And to what that first caller was saying, he's right. Eventually we're going to have three, maybe four big power conferences with 20 teams in it. And you're going to say that one team from each of those conferences gets an automatic bid just because they won the conference? And there would be three other spots in that case. But you keep on saying 24 and this. And when it goes to when you truncate these conferences and everything, like, do we need to see more of Oklahoma State this year?

I'll give you 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. Do we need to see more of Oklahoma State this year? Do we need to see more than Tennessee? Do we need to see more than Clemson with Davos Sweeney, Liberty, SMU?

The answer is no. David in Dallas next up on CBS Sports Radio. David, go ahead.

Hey, Zach. They should just keep it at four. I think it makes it special. Also, people are complaining about opportunities like you were talking about with Penn State. Every week's a playoff of the regular season. That's what makes college football special. That's why nobody cares about college basketball. That's why the NBA is coming up with some fugazi tournaments to try to drum up interest. That's why baseball has no interest until October 1st.

You know, it's a great point that you bring up, David. And let's just let's I don't like to compare collegiate to professional. But let's look at college basketball. I'm a fan of college basketball. But notice on most national shows, we don't talk college basketball maybe until the earliest on February. Or if you get a big coach on and the coach wants to be made available before February. So you want to go to this ridiculous number and be the FCS. It takes away from us talking and us paying attention to us really caring about the regular season from September, October and November. Because you could have this big game and you get the pumps and circumstances of the game like Ohio State of Michigan.

And you go to 24 or you even go to 12. It does take a little juice away from that game because you know that team. It's not do or die and you still have life to get into the college football playoff and there's too much insurance. Let's go to Bill in Myrtle Beach next up on CBS Sports Radio. Bill, what's shaking? Hey, thanks for taking my call.

First time caller. Anyway, I don't agree with the 4, 6, 8 or 12. It's too many after a while. I do think the number should be five. And the reason the number should be five is because you're going to have a team that gets in that is questionable and a team that didn't get in which is questionable. Why don't they play a wild card game to become the fourth team? And then four plays one and two plays three and you get a championship.

But Bill, let me just ask you this. You would agree in the last 24 hours the team with the biggest gripe has been Florida State. So they put Florida State in at five. They put Georgia at six. Let's just say you are right, Bill, and they go to only five teams. Don't you think the committee puts Georgia in front of Florida State then?

I think they may have, but I think they will make their decision. And that's why I think six is fine, because I like where Bill's thinking where you kind of have that wild card kind around like what Major League Baseball used to do. You could do that with six where the two best teams in the country, the two best conference champs, they get a bye. Then three and four get in. So this year that would have been Texas.

That would have been also Alabama. And then you have the two landing spots for your Florida State and for your Georgia. And I think that works out really well. And I still think it keeps the integrity and the fun of the regular season also conference championship weekend. And it gives everyone a landing spot for a little if all chaos breaks loose.

And if all hell breaks loose, it still gives you a landing spot for some teams that people still would like to see some more of. Let's go to Jason in Erie, Pennsylvania. Next up on CBS Sports Radio. Jason, what's happening?

Jason. Yeah, you hear me? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I was just going to say the reason they're going to 12 now is kind of future proof the whole playoff system, because right now they if you go to six teams now, eventually they're going to want to do 12 and to get all everyone to sign off on it and do everything else that they need to do. It'll take years upon years upon years. Well, you know why they're going to 12. They're going to 12 for money. That's what they're going for.

Like, let's not sugarcoat this. They're going to 12 teams for money first and foremost. That's what decisions get made in sports. It's for money. The NFL didn't say, oh, let's go to seven teams in the playoffs because, yeah, we need an extra wildcard team. It's for money with these TV deals and playoff things and along those lines.

And also, when you see the point that the caller was making, he's not wrong. You go to six, eventually they're going to want to increase it. That's the thing I hate the most with going to 12. I know inevitably and I can't stand 12 that they're going to want to increase it from 12 into even more teams. So to make that drastic jump from four to 12 being the first step, that's just ludicrous to me. And when you have basically one of the conferences, the power conferences go away this year. Originally, I was at the number eight being fine. Now it'd be at the number of six total teams being fine in the college football playoff.

Alrighty, I want to do this real quickly. So yesterday, Diana Russini from the Athletic had a timeline of events that they were reporting that Zach Wilson made it clear to multiple members of the organization, players, staff, coaches of his apprehension to start due to perceived injury risk per sources. The conversation with Rogers came as a result of Wilson's shared sentiment with others. And here's what I'll say. Zach Wilson, let's say the Jets go to him. Zach, we want you to start again.

He says no. Yesterday I said to you, they should cut him then. I would actually suspend him. I would suspend Zach Wilson and then you don't have to pay him whatever money remains on the contract and things like that. But it makes no sense to me for Zach Wilson why you wouldn't want to play. I understand you could be annoyed at the organization, but the reason why you're in this spot is because you didn't play well enough.

And you've been given now multiple opportunities to be the guy. And you say you don't want to play because you're afraid you're going to get hurt or you don't like the team around you, whatever the bull junk is. Well, you're going to be trying to get a second opportunity this offseason. So why the heck would I want to go sign Zach Wilson and bring Zach Wilson in if he's not willing to participate right now in a tough circumstance? This makes me want to move farther and farther away from Zach Wilson. And trust me, no one's going to be begging right now for the services of Zach Wilson other than they just can't get out of the way of their own ego.

And they think their own ego from an offensive mind in this league is going to be able to fix Zach Wilson. Let's listen up. This is Robert Salah on the report that Zach Wilson doesn't want to play football right now. Here's the coach of the Jets.

Let's be clear. If he was reluctant to play guys, he wouldn't be here. Actually, coincidentally, just got done speaking with him. He came in about a half hour ago and we had a really good conversation. The young man wants the ball. He wants to start. He believes he's the best quarterback in the room and best quarterback for this team and the guy who gives us the best chance to win. And I'll tell you guys the same thing I told him. I appreciate it. I appreciate the fact that he wants to play.

I'm just not there yet. So this gets leaked out two ways. One, Robert Salah's lying. There's coaches on the staff that are annoyed with the way that Zach Wilson's handling this and they want to show him. Or Zach Wilson's team is leaking this out in a bizarre way because they want to expedite his departure from the New York Jets and just have the Jets release him outright. Let's listen up to Aaron Rodgers doing his weekly interview on the Pat McAfee Show via ESPN.

And he responded to the reports that Zach Wilson doesn't want to play. Whoever that person is that thinks it's OK, number one, to talk to anybody like that, I don't understand what you get out of that, number one. But number two, what is your impetus?

What is your motivation to try and bury someone like that? And that's a problem with the organization. You know, we need to get to the bottom of whatever this is coming from and put a stop to it privately. There's no place in a winning culture. And there's been, this is not the only time, there's been a bunch of other leaks.

I think it's chicken at its core. And, you know, I think it has no place in a winning organization to be a source, especially not being an assassinate somebody's character. So, Sam, you know, I translate that Zach Wilson doesn't want to play because notice Rodgers goes after the report. Rodgers goes after who's leaking the information.

And now whatever happens in the next 24, 40 hours is nonsense because the Jets are just trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. But whoever is leaking this information is the real frustration from Aaron Rodgers because it shows Rodgers knows the truth and Rodgers knows that someone in the organization, whether it's Zach or a coach or someone, they leaked this and the truth is now out there for everybody else to digest and talk about for the rest of the week. That was exactly what I heard when I heard that cut also. He wasn't denying the report. He wasn't saying that's BS that whoever would say that. No, he was knocking the leak. And once you start knocking the leak, that means you're frustrated with that. The correct information is out there.

So I'm right there with you that this was 100 percent true. And listen, I don't think it's about injury really as much for Zach Wilson. He wants to move on.

It's not even just about moving on. They just continue to put him in bad situation after bad situation. He's terrible. But like with that offensive line and all the other issues, like there's no chance for him to succeed.

He just needs a fresh start and try something else. No chance. There's a lot of bad quarterbacks this year that have been given an opportunity and at least have looked competent at times. On the Jets? No, no, not at the Jets. Around the rest of the league. How many quarterbacks have we looked at?

We said, wow, they actually look competent. And you have Breece Hall, you have Garrett Wilson. And I'm not saying that the Jets have put Zach Wilson in the best position.

They haven't. But that shouldn't exonerate Zach Wilson, because what Zach Wilson has been able to control. He's been God awful and hasn't shown any sign of ever being a franchise quarterback. I'm not defending Zach Wilson. I'm just saying that he understands that him in this system, on this team, at this moment, whether it's a confidence thing or the offensive line or whatever.

There is a zero percent chance of success. So why put himself out there continually to showcase how terrible he is? Maybe he'll go to a different place and pull a Rich Gannon or a Geno Smith and showcase that he does have the talent. But with the Jets, with this team and this coaching staff, he just will not succeed. So he knows that.

He understands that. Another quarterback injured last night. What does this mean for the rest of the football? I think it only picks up the intensity and pressure for two more teams to win it all. We will discuss that when we return. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio.

Let's get the latest CBS Sports Radio update in first, though, with the act man, Rich Ackerman. Imagine you're looking at a balancing scale with everything you do for other people on one side and everything you do for yourself on the other side. If it isn't balanced, maybe it's time to spend a little more time on you. And therapy is a great place to start. BetterHelp connects you with a licensed therapist online who can help you find that balance and stick to it. Visit betterhelp.com slash positive to get 10 percent off your first month.

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Learn more at Navy federal dot org. This week's player is Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. In Sunday's 22 to 17 win over the Broncos, Stingley picked off Russell Wilson twice. Stingley now has four interceptions on the season, all coming in his last five games and joining us coming up at five twenty p.m. Eastern, two twenty p.m. Pacific from the Houston Texans will be his teammate in Will Anderson Jr..

Looking forward to that conversation. Byron Young from the Rams will stop by at four twenty p.m. Eastern, one twenty p.m. Pacific. We'll get back to the phones in just a second.

A lot of participation on the college football playoff topic. I think they should only go to six. We already know they're going to twelve.

But what say you eight five five two one two four CBS eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. Good news for Jaguars fans. I know you lost last night, but you felt for a while that the season was over because you saw Trevor Lawrence leave the game in an intense amount of pain. And it's amazing to me that when you get the news today and it I guess wasn't as bad as what it looked because I thought his season was over when he left the field. But now it's a high ankle sprain. He'll be week to week.

You don't think he's going to play this week, but maybe come back two weeks from now. But I don't know if you realize this when he goes down and we've seen before. I remember when Tom Brady tore his ACL, he walked off the field on his own power. I remember when Carson Wentz tore his ACL, he stayed on the field through a touchdown to an Eagles player that helped win a game for the Eagles up against the Rams that eventually walked off the field. Last night, Trevor Lawrence is an intense amount of pain and we didn't know if it was a leg injury. We didn't know if it was an ankle injury. He got assistance all the way to the locker room. You know, maybe this is bizarre. Maybe this is like not that important.

But you have a cart. Why wouldn't they just cart him off to the locker room? Maybe I'm just using logic, but I saw the video how much of a struggle it was.

And Trevor Lawrence is a big dude. How much of a struggle it was for the medical staff. Trevor was helping him just get into the locker room and those shots in the tunnel like just get the guy in the cart.

The most ridiculous things I've ever seen. I forget the cart. The other person that was helping him was a cop or security guard. Oh, yeah.

When was the medical guy? You're right. Why not have one of the players on the bench or like somebody who's not in uniform? Why are you getting like the fact that they didn't have a plan in place to get Trevor Lawrence to the locker room? Your most important player is beyond me. You have the franchise leader, the guy that is there to save your franchise, the golden boy, the face of the organization.

And you can't even get the guy a damn cart to get into the locker room? That's what everyone calls me. Golden boy.

Face of the organization. Really? Around here? Yeah. You sure? I mean, look at this mug.

Beautiful. Yeah. You know what? I don't think they'd get you a cart around here if you got hurt. I think they would tell Stu, pick him up, fire him and carry his ass out of the building.

They'd get me a coffin. You're not wrong about that one. Off that injury, though, we don't know when Trevor Lawrence is going to come back. The AFC is wide open. If it's not this year to go to the Super Bowl for the Ravens, and I know they've dealt with their own injuries with Mark Andrews, when is it going to be your year? Because Kansas City looked extremely vulnerable. It's now been 13 weeks and we haven't seen that offense be great outside of what? That week three performance when Taylor Swift was in the building, I think up against the Chicago Bears, or the second half up against the Raiders.

And I tried to warn everybody last week. Oh, the Chiefs are back when they beat up on a bad Raiders team in the second half. Did everyone forget they're playing the Raiders? Like, did everyone forget the Raiders fired their coach? I know there's been a fun story under Antonio Pierce, but let's not go praise the Chiefs offense for finally having a pulse in the second half up against the Raiders. And that offense, they did not play great even though they should have got bailed out with the penalty because it was past interference at the end, but they did not play well enough where I thought they were deserving of a victory up against the Packers and they didn't get it. So, in the AFC it's clear there's a lot of pressure on the Ravens, and you keep on seeing these quarterbacks drop like flies, like just in their own division.

Burrow's done, Watson's done, now Kenny Pickett is hurt. Like the Ravens, we know they're going to win the AFC North, but when you look at this year of who are the teams that are competing in the AFC, the Dolphins haven't been able to beat a great team, the Jaguars haven't been able to really beat a great team, and I guess the Texans and the Colts are now becoming a story. You look around, if your best competition is a, eh, Chiefs offense, even though they still have Mahomes, a Dolphins team that can't beat great teams, and then you have the Jaguars and we don't know when Lawrence is going to come back, as long as Lamar stays healthy, as long as the Grade 8 stays healthy, they better find a way to get to the Super Bowl this year. On the other side, the 49ers, they have now smothered the Eagles and then also the Dallas Cowboys. The 49ers have been knocking on the door the last few years.

Now you've got to break through, we've seen them get to a Super Bowl before, but you've got to finish the job, because they are by far and away the best team in the NFL right now through the first 13 weeks of the season. Back to the college football playoff conversation, 855-212 for CBS, 855-212-4227. Let's go to Zach in California next up on CBS Sports Radio.

Zach, very important question right out of the gate, how do you spell your first name just one day? Oh, just like you, beautiful, D-A-C-H. My man, what do you got for me? Hey, yo, I completely agree about your thoughts on the 16 playoffs, because for me, I think this year is a perfect example of that, because if we had four, if we had six teams this year, who would have got in, right? Florida and Georgia.

So I think that would have been a perfect, I mean, perfect for everybody, you know? Yeah, no, I agree with you, and I don't think we need to see any more teams after that. Like, I like Oregon, I don't need to see any more of them. I don't need to see, you know, any more of Ohio State as well, and I would have been on board going 2-8, I would have. But when you get rid of a Power Five conference, I feel like you need to truncate the expansion as well. Let's go to Mike in Pennsylvania quickly. Mike, what do you got? Hey, Zach, thanks for taking my call.

Appreciate you making it. You know, you're saying that a 12-team playoff is going to water down the regular season. I think it's going to have the exact opposite effect.

How so? I'll give you two reasons. One, from a fan's perspective, if my team, if my team is a top Division One team and they lose in Week 4, my interest in my team diminishes greatly, because they've had a lot to talk about. But you could still get in as a one loss. You could still get in one loss. Two one loss teams get in this year.

Who's your team just wondering? Well, my team's Notre Dame, so it's not, you know, they're a whole other category. But I'm just saying, you know, my interest in my team getting to their goal of winning a national championship if they lose in Week 4 is greatly diminished. My second reason is because there's so much pressure to go undefeated, right now you have schools who their non-conference schedule is so weak because they're afraid of that non-conference loss. If we go to a 12-team expansion and we get through a couple of years of the scheduling cycle, I think you're going to see a lot more non-conference matchups that are a lot better than we see right now. Yes and no, Mike, and I'm up against it.

It's a good point that you bring up. Like we did have Texas and Alabama play each other in Week 2, and both those teams did get in to the college football playoff. But then how many schools start to say, oh, let's just keep on scheduling cupcakes too. And I know with the conferences expanding, there's going to be fewer spots and there's more conference games and things like that and tougher teams that you could play. But ultimately, when does it start to become, oh, let me still schedule some soft schools so if I lose two games, I can still find the way to be one of the 12 teams standing.

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