College Football’s Week of Chaos: Playoff Finalists, Format Changes, and Coaching Carousel

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2021

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

College football’s championship weekend is here. And after marquee matchups like the SEC title game, between #1 Georgia and #3 Alabama, and #2 Michigan vs. #13 Iowa in the Big Ten Championship, the College Football Playoff committee will decide who is in, and who is out of this year's playoff. But beyond determining this year’s finalists, the committee is also coming off a meeting where they discussed the potential of expanding the playoff. And, in the midst of everything, several big name head coaches made moves to take new roles, like Lincoln Riley to USC and Brian Kelly to LSU. Heather Dinich explains who we could see in the playoff, what changes were discussed, and when a decision on reformatting the CFP could actually happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So Heather Denech, where are you right now?
0:03.2	Pablo, I am in the DFW Grand Hyatt.
0:07.9	Heather Denech covers the college football playoff and all its complexities for ESPN.
0:13.3	This is the second time in a month that I've been here.
0:15.9	I'm in a giant ballroom where there may or may not be a press conference about CFP expansion, but I'm in it to win
0:24.2	it this week between the playoff rankings and the playoffs. So that's where I am. Yeah, Heather,
0:30.3	it's a very glamorous lifestyle that you lead returning to the same hotel over and over again.
0:34.7	But I want to get into the actual meeting of the college football
0:38.7	playoff committee here because I think most fans like me sort of imagine to be a very sinister
0:45.5	kind of secretive kind of deal where all these power brokers decide the fates of millions of
0:51.8	maniac fans. So just to start out, what is this actually like in reality?
0:57.7	It is definitely secretive. Sinister might be a little bit harsh because they're really nice people in there.
1:05.2	And there are so many new committee members. I want to say seven total, very established, a mix of administrators and
1:13.5	former coaches, former players, athletic directors. But Pablo, it is set on the fourth floor of the
1:20.5	Gaylord Texan resort. And it is the best way I could describe it, the North Pole on steroids in
1:26.9	December. And so it's the perfect place on steroids in December. And so it's the perfect
1:29.3	place for them to hide. And in the very first year, when Condoleezza Rice was there, she could just
1:36.3	walk in and nobody knew because there were 10-foot elves and a giant Christmas tree and all these
1:42.6	other things going on. Wait, this is, this is a literal, like, uh, Christmas decorated kind of deal.
1:48.7	It's not a metaphor you're describing.
1:50.2	No.
1:52.7	I'm telling you walk into winter wonderland, millions of Christmas lights.
	...

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