Welcome back to the latest edition of the Aud Audible presented by Trader Joe's.

I'm Bruce Feldman, joined as always by my colleague from the Athletic Stuart Mandel.

We are taping this about an hour or two after the first CFP rankings came out.

Are we going to overreact?

What are we going to do here, Stu?

You know, it used to be, I would say, the first three or four years of this thing,

I would watch eagerly. I would parse everything Jeff Long or wherever the committee chairman was at the time.

Kirby Hookett said, looking for clues about the criteria.

Whoever the poor Schmoe was who got stuck having to defend the other folks in the room in front of national

TV for what turns out to be a I don't know what to categorize how ESPN handles this it just

doesn't I'm not saying it's not authentic faux drama yeah thank you that's probably better way

putting it it actually people watch it like it it achieves its. People watch the show. But you do have to kind of, especially with these early ones, right?

I mean, you really have to try to manufacture drama knowing that the number one and three teams

are going to play each other this week. Ohio State's number two. Oh boy, Michigan's behind

Clumson. If Michigan beats Ohio State and wins the Big Ten, don't worry.

They're going to the playoff.

I think the only one who might feel a little bit slighted is TCU, and I get it.

They're undefeated and they're below Alabama.

But I can't really get worked up about that because I think Alabama is probably better than TCU, right?

It's like, you know, it doesn't feel controversial to me maybe like some past years.

Right.

We're giving TCU in this case who's undefeated and there's something to be said for that.

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