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Until Saturday: A show about college football

Can Auburn top Texas A&M, will the Big Ten change title game requirements & Random Rankings!

Until Saturday: A show about college football

The Athletic

News, Football, Sports, Sports News

4.61.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2020

⏱️ 76 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to another splendid Friday of Andy and Ari pointing out just how bad the Big Ten has potentially bungled their conference's playoff hopes. Will the league reverse course and allow a conference title contender to play despite falling short of the six-game threshold (1:00)? Though a decision is still looming, the SEC isn't pleased about the situation. Could BYU travel to Ohio Stadium to take on the Buckeyes, or is it a pipe dream? In a scenario where, say, a BYU or Cincinnati were to play and upset OSU, would that non-power 5 team be catapulted into the playoffs? The guys preview a veritable weekend matchup, Ohio State-Michigan State (18:00). Is there a chance Mel Tucker can rally his crew to pull off a stunner, or will the Buckeyes roll as expected? Is Ari willing to bet cold, hard cash on Auburn-Texas A&M (24:15)? What about the Tigers makes the guys believe they can play spoiler? The duo stay in SEC land to outline Florida-Tennessee (35:30) before moving to West Virginia-Iowa State, where the guys ponder if the Cyclones, coming off an emotional win, will be ready for the Mountaineers (37:00). An abnormal Bama-LSU clash (42:15) precedes BYU-Costal Carolina (44:30) and Urban Meyer to Texas talk (46:15). Lastly, another scintillating edition of Random Rankings (57:00)!


Follow Andy on Twitter: @Andy_Staples

Follow Ari on Twitter: @AriWasserman

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the Andy Staples show. It's a Friday, which means we are talking lines and over-unders and all kinds of fun stuff because it's been a wild week in college football. We got people moving

0:21.4

games around. We got BYU headed to the surf turf in Conway, South Carolina. We got Ohio State.

0:28.3

They're going to play this week. We don't know if they're going to play next week. We have no

0:31.8

idea if the Big Ten's going to change the rules. We do know the SEC's complaining about the

0:35.7

possibility of the Big Ten changing the rules, which Ari Wasserman, I find it quite delicious to hear the SEC complaining about another league playing fewer conference games to help it get into the playoff.

0:48.5

Like, that would be like me complaining about someone raising their profile, a sports writer raising their profile, by writing about

0:54.9

barbecue. How dare you, sir? Yeah. Hey, Andy, I don't want to gloat, but I told you they were going to change it, didn't I, on Tuesday? And changed it yet, buddy. Yeah, no, I know, but. Barry Alvarez said it doesn't mean it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen because the Big 10, whether you like it or not, and you think it's stupid or not, the Big Ten wants to get a team in the playoff and the Big Ten wants to legitimize, they want to legitimize their champion. So regardless of whether or not the rule is dumb or if Indiana, if they had beaten Ohio State would be in the same position to get the same benefit. I don't know. You could sit here all day and argue about that.

1:11.9

All I know is that... had beaten Ohio State would be in the same position to get the same benefit. I don't know.

1:30.5

You could sit here all day and argue about that.

1:33.8

All I know is that there's two people in this scenario.

1:38.3

One, there's people who are okay with the rule change because they're okay with the Big Ten legitimizing their champion and getting a team into the playoff.

1:41.1

And also, that rule shouldn't have existed in the first place.

1:43.8

It should have.

2:01.1

But the other people who are mad at the rule, Andy, are the people who don't want Ohio State to get in. So it's like completely based on how you feel. And, you know, it's just funny because, yeah, they're right, they want to, they don't want Ohio State to get in. They don't like Ohio State. But it's funny because if you want to punish the Big Ten, punishing Ohio State is sort of the opposite of that.

2:08.0

Because Ohio State had the same mindset all along as the SEC and the ACC and the Big 12.

2:14.2

They were the ones fighting against the Big Ten to get them back on the field. So I don't, I don't think you should punish Ohio State.

2:22.6

Yeah, but my whole thing, too, Andy, is always been the same, even when we talked about this and people were freaking out on Twitter at us. But Ohio State, if they play six games, and I think there's an increasing chance they might get to play seven.

2:35.6

But if they get the six and O and they beat Wisconsin- Because BYU is going to come to Columbus?

2:39.4

That would be awesome. Who wouldn't want to watch that? Make it happen.

2:43.2

But my point has always been the same. I don't know that the Big Ten championship even matters for the playoff committee.

2:49.2

If Ohio State finishes 6 and O,

2:51.6

and they beat Wisconsin instead of Northwestern during championship weekend,

...

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