More UNC Dysfunction, CFP Expansion + Travel Whiners
The Audible with Stew, Bruce & Ralph: A show about college football
The Athletic
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bill Belichick's North Carolina experiment is spiraling at 2-3, with on-field blowouts, staff suspensions, and a roster that might not be good enough to stabilize. Ralph, Bruce, and Stew debate whether the Tar Heels are stuck with him due to the $20M guaranteed contract — and whether powerful boosters who hijacked the coaching search will ever admit they were wrong.
ESPN’s Kris Budden delivered a fiery rant about Big Ten coaches blaming losses on travel, sparking a debate: Is it a legitimate factor backed by the numbers, or just an excuse from highly-paid professionals? The crew digs into cross-country travel data, home field advantage, and whether 19-year-olds should be held to the same standard as NFL veterans.
Plus, the guys debate CFP expansion scenarios, including whether 13-0 Group of Five teams could steal at-large bids.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If I don't get this off my chest, I'm going to run myself through a window. |
| 0:03.7 | And I will run myself through a window. |
| 0:05.5 | If I hear one more Big Ten coach, blame it on the freaking travel. |
| 0:16.0 | Welcome to the Audible, presented by Peter Joe's. |
| 0:19.8 | I'm Stuart Mandel. I'm back for the first time in a while, it Joe's. I'm Stuart Mandel. |
| 0:21.0 | I'm back for the first time in a while, it seems like. |
| 0:23.5 | I'm joined by Bruce Feldman and Ralph Rousseau. |
| 0:26.5 | Every episode of the Audible is on YouTube now. |
| 0:29.6 | So check us out at Audible show. |
| 0:31.6 | And on Sunday, our weekly recap shows are live on YouTube |
| 0:36.5 | at 11.30 a.m. Eastern, 8.30 a.m. Pacific as we break |
| 0:41.2 | down the weekends games. On today's episode, we got a lot to get to, guys. In the mailbag, |
| 0:46.5 | we're going to check in on where things stand in the endless saga of CFB playoff expansion. |
| 0:52.9 | Our friend Chris Budden at ESPN had an interesting rant the other |
| 0:56.3 | day about travel excuses. We're going to get into that. There's some news about the new |
| 1:01.2 | transfer portal windows. But first, guys, the question everybody is asking, what in the world |
| 1:07.8 | is going on with UNC and Bill Belichick? |
| 1:11.5 | Bruce, you had a little scoop about them this week. |
| 1:14.7 | What's going on there? |
| 1:16.6 | Yeah, for starters, we reported on Tuesday that one of Bill Belichick's assistants, |
| 1:24.2 | Armand Hawkins, who is the cornerbacks coach, |
| 1:26.6 | and he had come with Steve Belichick, |
... |
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