Welcome to the Andy Staples Show. The playoff field is set.

Ari Wasserman and I are back together for the second time in about 12 hours.

We've apologized for picking Georgia to beat Alabama.

We got that out of the way last night.

Ari, now we got to break down a playoff field.

And the committee could have given us a little drama, but basically the field everybody

expected, number one Alabama, number two, Michigan, number three, Georgia, number four, Cincinnati.

I have like this, we talked a little bit about it on the previous podcast, but it's like on one hand, I feel

like Georgia got rewarded for being blown out in their conference championship game. But then on

the other hand, you have to make sure that Alabama has the easiest route. And on paper,

regardless of what you think, this isn't a slight at Cincinnati, but they would probably

be the biggest favorites against Cincinnati Volunt. So you have to, youama. But I think it's interesting. I would have liked to see

a rematch from the SEC game right away. I don't know if that was ever going to happen, but I feel

like that would be the right thing.

So Gary Barter got asked about that by Reese Davis on the ESPN show.

Gary Barter is the Iowa Athletic Director. He's the chair of the playoff selection committee.

So let's let's hear how he answered that question about matchups, rematches, all that, all that stuff.

The follow-up thing is something that I just brought up that started percolating last night in some quarters, is that the committee should try to avoid the possibility of an

Alabama-Georgia championship or some others would say avoid an Alabama-Georgia rematch in the

semifinals.

I know what the protocol is, but clarify whether anything like that ever comes up even in the discussion prior to the voting stage.

The answer is no.

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