Brian, next up on the Irish Breakdown podcast brought to by our friends over at F Fandul, kind of expanding everything out. We're talking big picture college football for really the rest of the show today. And this is going to be a fascinating conversation, folks. We're taking a look at the Power Four conferences, and we're kind of dividing this up into three different segments here, I guess best way to put it. Talk about programs on the rise, talk about teams on the dissent, and then we're also talking about teams that are going to kind of be entering a little bit of a prove-it year, but where we're going to start are the ascending teams. Now, the focus is on being like national or conference power. So like not every team that we're talking about is gearing up to play for a national

championship. Some of it is competing for the conference championship, making noise within that,

potentially making the playoffs, but it's not every team we're talking about has the potential

to go and win the national championship immediately in 26. So overall trends, what they've done up

to this point and how they're looking moving forward. But this is a fascinating conversation.

It's basically who are the best teams in college football that weren't considered powers three to four years ago.

Now, there are some programs that have already arrived, and I think that's fair to say.

Yeah, I think there's two for sure, and the third is debatable, but I think that

you've got to, I just, the two that are there is Ohio State and Georgia. I know that Georgia

hasn't won a title all the way since all the way back in 2022, but when you're looking at

this is kind of like a five-year window.

George's down years has been what, going 13 and 1 and winning the Orange Bowl, that's been their down year. You know, I mean, in the last five years, so 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, they won

two national titles, but in the college ball playoffs twice and won the, was the Orange Bowl,

where they beat floor state

63 to 3 to say well you know yeah they got beaten last two years in the playoffs but they

got beat by a team that was the national runners up and they got beat by a team who took the eventual

national runners up down the wire in o miss in a rematch game, a game that they had won in the

regular season, which is hard to do. Oregon found that out the year before.

Now, Oregon also could not in the rematch game this year, so it's not always a given that

you're going to win the rematch, but it's harder to beat a team twice.

And that was a heck of a game. It was a back and forth game. Georgia's still there. They're still the best team in the SEC. They're still a national title contender every year. Are they as good as they were in 21, 22? No, but they still keep winning the SEC. So how can you not take them in there? Ohio State's a no-brainer.

I mean, they're a top five team every year. You know, their down years, what, an 11-and-2 record where they lose to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl in a game where, like, half their starters are not playing on defense. You know, it's like there were a lot of guys out. They'll pull out in that. You know, beat Notre Dame that year. and then the next year they won the national title.

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