Transcript of Greg Gets Caught Lying To A Friend | Hour 2 New

You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states. Tony's back. What an incredible feat that was. Give it up one more time. Come on, give it up again for Tony. How about that? You must be proud of yourself.

In the beginning, um, somebody out there asked me, hey, 'What do you think, like, what are the percentages chance you think you're gonna do it?' I'm like, 'To be fair, like 35-75 I can't do it. Like 35% I can probably do it, 75% I can't, 40% I can.' So the opposite of what you first said, yeah. Well, yeah, 35-75, like I probably won't be able to do it.

Like a good 110% total.

Was that the Patriots games?

Yeah, it was. Well, you give 110%. If you give 100, you can't do what I did. That's why you give 110%.

Wow. Why not 115?

Now, when we put that on social, You know, like, like the video team here has put side by side you and Aaron Donald. Uh, boy, look at your tush just sticking out there, huh?

Yeah, but that was the— was that the first attempt?

Uh, no, I think it's the second.

No, that was the second attempt, I think.

When, when we put that on social, is that going to take away from Aaron Donald's feat, you think?

I, I think he's going to be a failure now in Los Angeles if he decides to come back. Maybe stay retired.

Yeah, look at that. Incredible. Good for you.

That's a good look, dude.

I actually think that might have been the first attempt for Aaron. I did it twice. He did it once.

I mean, Tony, do you think you could do it simultaneously with one in each hand or no?

The left hand is going to be tough.

Oh my God. Do you think Aaron Donald could even do one in each hand? I assume you have to believe he could, right?

He can do anything.

Stranger.

He can do anything he wants.

Chris, can you explain to me here? I overheard you talking to your father before the show began today. Can you explain to me what's going on with your fantasy football draft and, and your father is going to renege on, on a promise that he made?

Yes. So every— this is the 4th year of my fantasy league. It's a fun league.

It's a 5th year, isn't it?

Maybe.

This is not the big one that your father does.

No, this is not PFPI fantasy. Fantasy.

Are you in that one also?

Well, like, yes, I'm in my dad's family— it's our family league. Yes, I am in that.

But then you have another league.

This is my league. It's for actual— there's cash prize. It's a keeper league. It's, it's, it's, it's not easy. There's like, you can only keep a guy for so long, you know. It's just, it's complicated. My dad has no idea what's going on in it, but that has nothing to do with it. So the champion, my buddy Steve, lives in Connecticut, so A few weeks ago, like a month or so ago, my dad out in the wild was like, hey, I wanna— Steve's the champion for some reason. Greg's like, I want to fly him down. And so now we're coming to draft.

Is everyone else in attendance for your draft?

No, uh, there's a few other people that are not local, but he, he's the champion, so he— that's why he's decided, I want— we had— we may— we have a trophy here. Instead of mailing it up to you, I'll fly you down for the draft.

Because we used to, you know, for my fan— I, I'm in a fantasy league which this year is going on year number— this might be 30, either 29 or 30. Same guys, same 12 guys, minus like 1 or 2. 1 or 2 have been interchangeable, but we're doing league for either 29 or 30 years this year. Started when I was 16 years old. I'm 45 now, so you do the math, Greg, get back to me. And so we used to all do it together, of course, all 12 of us in the room together. We're at a place now where it's like, I'm gonna do it on my couch on the laptop, you know, like, it's enough already. Anyway, continue.

So we now are coming up, the draft's in a couple weeks. I just got a message from Steve yesterday. Flight's booked, excited to come down. And I reach out to my dad, I'm like, all right, so remember you gotta owe. And my dad, this morning, it happens here, he's like, I don't remember saying that. I don't know why Steve thinks.

So you're taken back. You said you would bring this guy down, he booked the ticket, he's gonna look for reimbursement, he's gonna look for a zel— can you zel me?

Right.

And you're gonna say you don't know anything about it?

Okay, in my defense, initially I had forgotten all about the thing.

All right, let's not, I wanna play this like, so let me explain the story, then you can get defensive. Okay. So then I tell my dad today, hey, you made this commitment, Steve booked his flight, like you gotta find out how much it was, send him the money, he's doing the thing. So then I'm like—

That's awfully presumptuous, by the way, from Steve to book the flight, then like, hey, this is what it costs, as opposed to—

Instead of giving him a limit or something. Yeah, okay, alright, I'm with you on that, you could have a little beef there. So I basically am like, I start getting unsure of myself, I'm like, did my dad say this? So I start looking back at my texts to Steve.

Steve.

So I'm like, I must have told Steve, hey, my dad's willing to— and then what I found was back on June 4th, while me and my dad on a Wednesday were at Hooters before bowling, this is where this video is.

Father and son out to get Hooters.

I found a video that we're going to play here that is my dad, and let's see if there's any incriminating ev— let's see if there's any proof here that my dad's willing to pay for Steve. All right, well, this video seems to be muted, so we will, uh, circle back when the—

let's do it this time with sound.

Yeah, this time with sound.

Hey Steve, congratulations again on winning the Fantasy League Championship last year. We finally got the trophy done, and I want to announce to you that if you're up for it, I want to fly you down to our next draft so that you can receive the trophy in person as you draft your new team.

That is as clear-cut as it gets.

It's just like, I look back at my texts and I'm like, not only is there proof, it's you being like, hey, if you're up for it.

In my defense, I was after 7 beers. You were driving.

Okay.

I mean, there's only 2 things that that means right there. Either you're going to pay for his flight, you're gonna fly him down, you're gonna either pay for his flight, or you're actually going to pick him up in an airplane that you are flying yourself and you bring him down. Those are the only 2 options.

I am a commercial pilot. First, initially, this is the truth, initially I'd forgotten about that. Fine!

9 beers!

And when you convinced me that there was this video or something, I also said honestly, I think I was just kidding. I think it was obvious I was kidding.

Well, Max.

We made a video.

How many beers have I had?

You saw me videotaping you to send to Steve.

I know. You're right.

And so that was a long— a little bit of a long video. My dad goes on to clarify in that video, just the flight, though. He specifically said, I'm not getting your hotel room too.

Put him up at the Ritz.

Also fly economy, please. No, I'll sell him something.

I'll text Steve right now and see how much it's like.

No, don't sell him some money. Sell him the money.

Let's all guess from Connecticut to Fort Lauderdale. What are you thinking for a round trip flight?

Now Spirit is defunct too. That used to be the place.

I would say $400.

I'm hoping the number starts with a 2. Round trip, no shot.

I don't think it's a solid 2.

If they opened up the straight, maybe.

We're working a deal, relax. We might walk away from the deal though.

First ask him—

you see that picture of me golfing the other day?

Chris, ask him what airline, because if he comes back with Frontier, all right, maybe closer to a 2 than a 4. We'll see.

I hope he picked the cheapest flight he could on Asswipe Airlines or something like that, because you know, there's no need to get carried away. Oh boy.

I'll let you know what he says. I texted him.

Let me know.

What a name for an airline. Asswipe Airline.

I agree with that. I'd fly it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I would. Hmm.

What's, what's the cheapest? Because like, you know, Tony says—

Frontier.

I know that's not what I'm asking.

What?

You could take a catering truck.

Like, oh boy.

Like, what is the cheapest price? For an airplane ticket that you would buy?

Because, you know, I go on for free inside the cargo hold.

You're saying there's too cheap where you would be worried that this is too cheap?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, like if round trip is $19, like, I don't know, I'm booking it, baby.

Yeah, there's no—

I'm booking it.

If it's standing room only, I'll stay in there the whole time.

So I'm the only one that would be worried about how low you got the costs?

Is there such a thing as standing room only flights?

No, but if they had one, if it was $19, I'd take it.

Don't give them any ideas.

San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Perfect.

I'll stay in the whole time.

Imagine a transcontinental flight, you're standing for 14 hours.

Sir, would you please sit down? No, I got one of those standing room seats.

You're holding a strap like in a subway.

SRO.

Wow, so I'm the only one that would be wary of the really cheap flights.

You know, I'm not quitting yet.

I trust airplanes.

Anything under $100, I ain't flying.

Okay, there you go. So there's an admission. Anything under $100—

You're talking to a guy who hasn't booked a flight since 'Nam.

Okay, you love that 'Nam reference. Well, your mother—

It's a good reference.

When's the last time you went on a computer and booked a flight? It was probably before computers. You probably had to call.

Yeah, I prefer calling to this day.

Hold on a second. If somebody tasked you with booking a flight to— well, I mean, you don't ever have to fly anymore for the Herald?

Um, yeah, occasionally.

And someone does it for you? You don't do it?

Uh, we used to have a, um, a— what do you call it? The people who book flights. Travel agent. Travel agent.

Now they just do it themselves.

Yeah, but I might farm that out to my wife.

But if you had to do it yourself—

There's no might. There's no might. He would farm it out to my mom. My mom would book it.

Right, she's willing.

But if you had to do it yourself, you would call the airline, you're saying?

Oh, 100%.

Zazz, we could do the game right now. Book a flight, Dad.

Go ahead. Like when I call my doctor's office, the recording says, go online to blankety blankety blank dot com and you can book an appointment. No, I want to talk to a human being on the phone. And book it in person, not online.

How confused is the person at the airline who picks up the phone and Greg on the other end says, "I'd like to book a flight." Why not?

I prefer a paper ticket.

But you don't even do that!

No, I think it's been a while since you've called to book a flight because all that's automated too.

Okay, my wife has the ticket right in her phone, which is weird.

Can you book your wife right now?

Your wife just says everything.

Right.

Okay.

I think the most technologically advanced thing my dad can do is order something off Amazon. That he's been— he's figured out that—

Oh, I'm big on that. I'm big on that.

He can get something and then it gets delivered to his house like that.

But it's so simple, so smooth.

But in terms of booking a hotel, booking an airline, I'm telling you, I bet you he has not done that since I was 10.

So you will call a hotel and say, what rooms do you have available?

I will call a hotel and say, I'd like to book a 3-night stay. From this date and that kind of thing. Amazing.

To be fair to Greg, I have booked a flight over the phone.

Thank you.

Like our honeymoon flight because we were using some points and stuff and I was—

When you brought COVID.

Doing— Yes. When I was doing a little bit more legwork. Well, when they gave it to me to bring over here.

That's right.

From the lab. Exactly right. But I called and I was like, hey, I want to get to Thailand. Can you help me create a couple leg flights via points?

That's different.

It is. But like still calling on the phone and sitting there for 45 minutes being like, I can send you to Seattle. And I was like, okay, great. What else?

Then Japan and then Bangkok, and I was like, "Okay, perfect, book it." No, but that's different because she's helping you with something you probably can't do on your own.

Correct.

What Greg is setting out to do is the simplest of tasks, and you're still choosing to call.

It's also simple on the phone. You're acting like it's much more difficult on the phone than it is on a computer.

It's so much easier on the computer.

Yeah?

It's all in front of you.

Yeah, but you—

It's all in front of me on a phone. I'm hearing a human voice helping me.

Exactly, Greg. When you call a hotel, Right. The, the underlying tone of your call is I need you to help me out.

Yeah, sure.

It's like if the computer's not going to help me out, it's going to spit out whatever number.

I'm going to pay you for it, but I need your help.

Exactly right. Hey, front desk person, listen, me and my wife, special occasion. I know that the corner room may be a little bit more, but maybe there's something you could do to help me out.

Right on.

And then all of a sudden it's like, you know what, Mr. Cody, I got you.

No, I've been—

the computer can't do that.

I will sometimes call once the reservation's made. I'll call a hotel and be like, hey, can I get this?

No, that's normal.

That's— but that's way different than not knowing how to book it online.

Just call up, say, I need a room.

I know how, I just choose not to.

Dan Levitar, this is the quickest it goes. Hey, this is the quickest it goes. Greg Cody, everybody, this is the quickest it goes.

Yeah, this is the Dan Levitar Show. I'm gonna push back against it. I don't think you can do it.

I'd like to see you try Try.

Get all the way to the pay right now. Book a flight.

Go online.

What's somehow more challenging than the Aaron Donald thing?

Greg, if you were tasked right now—

Greg's gonna shake more than Tony did—

to book a flight, what, like, what would you do right now?

I call americanairlines.com.

Call American Airlines. Perfect.

I mean, I, I access the website.

First thing, we open up the Yellow Pages.

But you're going like right to a specific airline. You don't want like a broad search engine. You're just going to a— you've chosen an airline already.

Well, I'm flying on an airline.

Right, but they may not have the best deals.

Do you have Yellow Pages in your home still? Like somewhere in your garage? Do you have like a—

I don't think so. No.

White Pages?

I don't know.

You do still have encyclopedias.

I do. Yeah, that's true.

Jeremy, do you know— are you old enough to know the difference between the White Pages and the Yellow Pages?

No.

Wow.

I know it wasn't that long ago. My first job as an intern with the Panthers was, uh, you see the White Pages, put everything in a spreadsheet.

Oh, I don't know.

Chris, difference White Page, Yellow Page?

I would just—

a white—

I know the difference. I'm trying to remember which one's which. I know one is like houses and one's businesses.

Okay, which is which?

Based off what Mike just said, I'm gonna think white is regular people and that's right, yellow.

That's right.

Whoa, that's correct.

That's right.

White is regular people.

Yeah, give it there.

Yeah, white is regular people.

So wait, everybody had the Yellow Pages and would just go around and be like, all right, I need to know Ace Hardware store.

Look, came out of your mouth.

That was Yellow Pages.

Yeah, like everybody had one. It was ubiquitous across every home in America.

They would— they'd be delivered to your home, like this year's edition of the Yellow Pages. It would just— white would be all people. White was residential.

Yeah, they just drop it there.

Yeah. And I remember, yeah, they were huge. They were like this thick.

The phone company from good family, Southern Bell.

I remember we had Southern Bell, we had like cabinets in my living room that had the white and the Yellow Pages. Yeah, and every once in a while I get bored, I'd go sift through them, look for people's phone numbers.

How did people live?

Prank call?

Where I'm coming from, Southern Belzer, Kim Mulkey.

God bless her.

I missed the phone book. I used to look up my own name. I used to like to see alphabetically who was right before me and who came right after me.

Did it change? Or did you just like to do that every once in a while to see your own name?

No, I only had to do it once.

Yeah, every year it could change.

Yeah.

You get a new edition just to see, like, so was it, was it local?

Was it by county?

Yes. Yeah. Broward County phone book. Dade County phone book.

Yeah.

So is this before, like, area codes? Is that, is that how they did that? Because that was the thing, right? You had to make phone calls.

My original, like, the house that I grew up in, I remember you'd give your phone number out.

Just 7 digits. Yeah, just 7 digits.

I don't even understand how that could be possible.

I remember the first time I had to use an area code was you know, for Palm Beach, and that was 407, which 407 now is Orlando, but 407 back then was Palm Beach.

561.

Yeah, my first, uh, phone number at 14 was 2— did not, did not have an area code. It, it be— it was a 7-digit number.

Do you remember?

I have your number.

Yes, my number is 27.

I remember it to this day.

I'm pretty sure our house, our— my childhood house number at the beginning, like, was just 7 digits. That happened in our childhood. The area code thing, I believe, happened like in my—

when it was an adjustment where all of a sudden now I had to add area codes to every local call I made.

It was a wild time. CBS was on channel 6. It was crazy.

Yeah, there were 4 channels.

Greg, I want to know how you would have handled this situation here. So there's a video that has gone viral. I, I first saw it yesterday. It's a video that's gone viral. There's— I don't know what city this is in. but it's all over the internet. And, uh, a woman, it looks like, you know, her automobile looks like maybe like a Kia Soul, uh, she loses control of her automobile. She is not in the driver's seat. She's now chasing the car across the median, which, I mean, is somehow still moving. Is it, is it in neutral? Is the car in drive? I don't know. She's trying to get back into the car.

Oh my God.

She now finally opens the door to the car to try and get back in. But you'll see here she slips and falls. She can't quite get in, and the tire is going to run over her leg right there. Oh, runs over her leg, and now the car into a ditch, and she loses the car, and she's just— she's just there.

The car's gone with a broken leg.

Uh, what do you make of that, Greg?

Uh, slow-moving woman, but I feel bad for her.

You can call her abroad.

I'd like to see it again, actually, now that we're all prepared for what we just watched. And now, how did the car get to that spot where it's facing that direction in I feel like the first obvious thought is, why are you not hopping in the front seat and just hitting the brake, right? Well, and she's awfully nonchalant now. Yeah, let's, let's hustle a little. All right, she is a slow-moving woman.

And now you think that she thought when it hit the curb it was gonna stop?

Yeah, probably, because that's what—

well, you see her start to pick up the pace a little bit right when it goes.

Now why can't she get in? What is— you know what, it looks like she's trying to pull the car instead of actually jumping in. And stopping the car.

Oh, if I was efforting for—

and it runs over.

Oh no.

If I was efforting for a lawsuit from this car company, well, this is something you could do here.

You could sue a car company over not being able to drive.

She's like, look, I got ran over, I couldn't stop it.

All this video she is not putting into exhibit at the court. No, I promise you.

No, no way.

She wants this video to go away.

Yes.

So there's a lot of questions here. Number one, how did the car start facing that direction in the first place?

Yeah, it took a great question.

Perpendicular to the road. To both sides of the road.

I hadn't even thought of that.

Tony, perpendicular is like a T.

How did all this happen?

It seems to be she's emerging from a parking lot when we picked this video up.

Number 2, how is the car moving like that? If it's in neutral, why is it moving at such a speed? I mean, it's not like it's fast, but the car's moving.

It's not in neutral.

Is there a shot?

Is it in drive?

Is there a shot this is not her car at all and she just saw a car and she's like, let me be a good Samaritan.

No chance.

That would be crazy. Let me try to save the day.

Women.

And then she, she doesn't decide to hop in. She wants to actually use her strength to pull the car.

Yeah, Tony could have done it.

Yeah, big mistake.

Stop the car.

Big misplay by her.

And then she gets run over.

Could have been worse. She could have gone to the front of the car of like, this will work.

Yeah.

Oh my God, can you imagine?

It's just how much momentum does that car have that it runs over multiple curbs and still keeps going? It's like something is stuck on the pedal. I think she's— what, what happened here, and I don't know how much we have prior to the car on the street.

By the way, can I point Point out the woman is seemingly not hurt. Like she did, her leg did get run over.

She popped up earlier. That's a drama.

I could just point out the woman.

I think she's leaving a drive-thru and you know when they're like, excuse me, excuse me. And then you're like, oh yeah. And then she probably got out thinking she paid.

Oh, that's possible.

And then all of a sudden she gets like an extra sauce. She turns back, the car's moving.

Possible.

She's like, holy shit.

All of this was over an extra ranch sauce.

Yeah. New Caesar sauce at McDonald's.

That, you know what, that, that actually makes sense as to why the car could be facing that direction.

I feel bad for the woman, but yet you gotta, you gotta be nimble.

I don't wanna learn. Gotta wanna learn.

Yeah. You gotta be nimble. You gotta get in your car and like have a little bit of wittedness. Right.

Right. Watching my dad in that spot.

I mean, let's hustle.

Yeah. There's not a lot of hustle there.

He's literally walking behind the car.

And then it just runs her over.

It's her fault.

I didn't say it.

I love the Kia Soul though.

Or did I?

I had two of those.

My dad drives a Kia Soul.

You had two Kia Souls?

Yeah, I had two.

First I had one that was like the mustard yellow car.

He has an underrated car, dude.

Yeah, it was a, it was a mustard yellow I had in college.

Who has a mustard yellow car?

Refer to it as Fernando. Don't know why. Like my shirt.

And then, yep.

And then, uh, that was when I was about 20 years old.

And then, yeah, that was the first car that I had. Dang, huh?

Yep.

Yep.

And then I like this. Um, first cars that we owned. So yours was what?

Uh, uh, mustard yellow Kia Soul.

Chris, first car?

My dad's old 1997, like Throw-up color Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Everyone's first car has to be a terrible color, right?

It wasn't a bad color.

It was like brown. It was like an off-brown.

It was like dark greenish brown.

Okay, sorry.

That makes it better. Uh, Mike, first car?

Uh, '98 Honda Civic LX.

Not bad. Tony?

Early '90s Mercedes-Benz E320 that was absolutely tore up.

How old was it?

It was like— I got it, I started driving in 2009.

Ooh, so it's like 15 years old.

15 years old.

Wow. They had no power steering.

No power steering on.

I had to be there like, yeah! And I was like, ahh!

That's how I got so much wrist strength.

Roy? '98 silver Ford Contour.

That doesn't sound so bad.

No, it wasn't. No, it was like 4 years old.

Greg?

1967 Buick Skylark, white.

That sounds good, right?

Yeah, it was a nice car. It had fat racing tires on the back.

Is that the same car that they, uh, robbed the convenience store and killed those two, uh, clerks and my cousin Vinnie?

Well, I got an alibi.

Yeah, the two cop—

my first—

you should have said Model T, Greg. Model T, great joke.

My first car, I got my grandma's car. It was 2000, I was sophomore in college. My grandma's green Nissan Sentra. She wasn't able to drive anymore, stunk of cigarettes, uh, but it was my first car. Green Roughers car, but I liked having the car.

Yeah, you should have worn that red shirt while driving the green car.

Good contrast. Yeah. All right, uh, let's get good about that. That was a good one.

Take a sip, you earned it.

Take the rest of the day off.

Down levitar.

I do agree with Greg.

Why are you talking so slow?

Need to win this opener.

It's because you can hear yourself. It's kind of awkward.

What do you mean, Craig?

Do you have it back in my day?

A what?

Greg Cody. I stand behind Greg for not doing Back in My Days anymore. You all have him singing songs and doing so many ancillary things that is ridiculous, and you know it.

Talk faster.

Why are you talking so slow?

I'm talking at my normal speed. This is, uh, yeah, my wife loves this deep, sexy voice, I'll tell you that. There you go.

How would you talk to through with it.

Yeah, baby!

This is the Dan Levitan Show. Let's get into a little bit of sports here. Uh, Mike, I know you've, you've had some thoughts on this. The, the coaches poll is out. College football is right around the corner. The AP poll— do we know when the AP comes out? That's what we really care about. But yeah, the, the coaches poll has been out for like a week or so, and I know you have some thoughts about the top 10 coaches poll.

Yeah, I don't really get all up in arms over, oh, this person's right here. What I like to do is I look at that, and every year there are teams that people expect to be good that are bad. And people are almost always certain that, uh, preseason top 10, all those teams are going to be in the mix. But this happens every year where a team just craters. So I was looking at this year's top 10 trying to guess who's a program that craters this year, that is just straight up bad.

Can we look first for some, like, just to give it some context, examples from last year preseason?

Yeah, I imagine LSU is probably that. Yeah, Texas, like, coaches poll last year.

I'm looking at right now, coaches. I'll look at the coaches just for, for, you know, to match it up properly. Top 10 in the coaches poll preseason last year, LSU was number 9, and obviously, you know, they, they tanked. Who else here didn't finish very good that was in the top, uh, what did Clemson finish last year? Like, what did Clemson finish ranked pretty high last year?

I don't think they finished ranked.

Clemson was ranked number 6 in the preseason polls last year, and their final ranking last year, Clemson was not ranked. So Clemson is probably the best example.

Yeah, there's always a top 10 team.

It's— yeah, okay, so go ahead.

Finishes the season unranked. They end up firing their coach because things go, uh, poorly. And I was trying to guess who's a team that does that this year, and my answer will shock you.

Well, so here, so 1 through 10, it's Ohio State, Greg, Oregon, Georgia, Texas, Notre Dame, Indiana, Miami at 7, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Ole Miss. So which of those, Mike, do you think could be like Clemson or like an LSU and they end up being unranked?

So what you look for here in trying to predict which team is going to have a poor season, it's, it's got to have a tough schedule. It's got to run into other ranked teams. So it's got to be from a stacked conference. You try to eliminate some teams that probably won't have a really bad season because their schedule, both out of conference and in conference, is a bit favorable. Miami, hopefully they can make the ACC championship, but I don't think Miami is going to be bad, right? I don't think Miami is going to be finishing unranked. So we keep them in there. Same thing with, with Notre Dame. Indiana, that might be a contender for a lot of people because they won the championship last year. They lost Mendoza, but they brought in Hoover and they They're still pretty talented. And if you look at their schedule, it's pretty favorable, especially non-conference.

Ohio State at home, at Michigan. Yeah.

So let's see, at home, I was torn between Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, and Ohio State.

Whoa.

Ohio State's the one we're gonna—

Ohio State would be my prediction right now because they lost like a bajillion guys in the NFL Draft. That was a lot of talent, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

And At Texas week 2.

Now I know Ryan Day's had success there, but when I feel like that was the end of their run. College football has changed. Being able to stack the classes, that's not really there. And I just think that they're on a downward trajectory. I could see this season going poorly. They have Texas as a huge game, but then I think they're the kind of team that can trip up against the likes of an Illinois or an Iowa. I don't think they're this invincible team anymore.

They lost to Clemson. Stretch of mid-October, Mike, at Indiana, followed by USC and then and home against Oregon. That's a stretch, right?

That's a cross-country to USC and then closing to Michigan. We all know historically there's struggles there. I could see this season going very poorly for Ohio State. So that would be like—

poorly?

I could see— yeah, for Ohio State standards, I could see it ending like, like an LSU or a Clemson season. They're supremely talented. Sayan was a Heisman finalist, but there were a lot of uncomfortable truths, I think, that popped up in that Cotton Bowl. And that was with a much better team.

Wow.

So, Mike, in the backyard here, Miami reaches the national championship game, wins the portal for another top quarterback. Do you think they're ranked too low at 7? Because they're consistent in all the preseason polls. They're consistent, consistently low top 10, which surprised me. Why do you think that is?

I think that there is going to be skepticism around Miami until they prove that, you know, they're here to stay. But I'm not pissed off about 7. I would have been pissed off if they were lower than 7.

Why would you be pissed off? Who gives a shit?

Yeah, none of this stuff matters. But I would have been like, wait, we're behind Texas A&M. We beat them last year. What are we doing? I understand being behind Indiana because, you know, they beat us last year. Notre Dame ahead of Miami. Okay, Notre Dame is going to be really talented, but Texas, I know they had a really good offseason, but Texas was a disaster last season by their expectations. Georgia, Georgia not going the way that I think that they, that they used to. So I was a little bothered by some of that stuff, but whatever. I think it'll all come out clean in the wash. But I could also see how I'm a huge fan of what Oklahoma's done this offseason. I think they're bringing back I was a Meteer guy. Meteer, did you see him with his shirt off the other day? It was like he looked like Aaron Donald. I know he totally fell off when he hurt his hand, but I think a lot of people would probably circle Oklahoma as a team that might not be good as a top 10 team because they look so bad in the college football playoff and you just have venables and a lack of trust.

Boy, Oklahoma's at the Big House week 2. That's a game right there.

People seem to think Michigan's going to be good this year. They're ranked 16 right now. A reminder, Kyle Whittingham is the coach there. People forget. But, you know, Underwood, like, I don't know if I trust him throwing the ball. Jim, I got to see it.

There are a couple of things in college football that I'm really confused with right now, Greg. And I know you're looking at me like, Zaslo, how can you be confused? You're a college football expert. All right. It's why you, you travel on the road every week with ESPN Radio. And I would say Yeah, I know, like when we're talking about the experts, like there's Feinbaum and there's Heather Dinich and there's me, you know?

Sure.

But there are a couple things that I'm really confused about. Number 1, when it comes to the college football playoff, I know we're— I know there's gonna be 12 teams again this year, but like where are we with the expansion? When would this happen? Is it gonna be 16? Is it gonna be 20? Is it gonna be 24? I would hate it too. I would hate it too because, you know, it was a conversation a couple years ago when they enacted the 12-team college football playoff. Is this going to water down the regular season? Is this going to take away from the regular season? And my opinion is no, it is absolutely not taking away from the regular season. Now, there's been a couple of instances, like, like for instance, at the end of the year when Michigan plays Ohio State. That game, and you go 2 years ago when Michigan beat Ohio State, Ohio State of course went on to win the national championship. If there was no 12-team playoff game, Ohio State's season would have been over when Michigan beats them in that last game of the season. Instead, Ohio State was able to go on and win the national championship.

So in that sense, does that take a little bit of the juice away from that game? Yeah, a little bit. But I think the overwhelming majority would be that— majority opinion would be that the 12-team playoff has enhanced the regular season. You got more games and more teams that are involved every single week. But a 24-team playoff? That's when I think we would actually be watering— we would lose the regular season in college football.

I don't mind a 2014 playoff. I thought I was going to hate the World Cup expanding from 32 teams to 48. I didn't. I think it was great. I think it just added another layer of interest, and I think the college football playoff expanding will do the same thing. What I don't like is the automatic tickets given to lesser teams from second-tier conferences. I think if you're gonna have a 24-team playoff, it should be the best 24 teams in the country, not the token invitation to a team that has no business there.

I think the expansion to 24 does give you more token teams. I can understand not liking that with, with 12, but with 24 you kinda have more. I hope we never get to 24.

It seems like that's the direction we're headed.

Well, I—

no, there's— there was a recent report that came out, I believe yesterday, that there's momentum for a 16-team expansion.

I don't even love that.

If expansion is inevitable, I'd like, I like it where we are.

I like it where we are right now.

I think that, I think that's a good number. But I also think that we're in this weird place with the, with the conference championship games. We pick and choose when they matter and when they don't. It didn't matter for Alabama, but it did matter for BYU. Meanwhile, Miami doesn't play in it and benefits from not playing it. Well, they should have benefited from playing it had they wanted to.

They've changed that this year now, the ACC, right?

Yes, it makes a little bit makes a little bit more sense. They're not trying to— I mean, that was a really terrible look for Jim Phillips last year.

But now the tiebreaker is going to be—

you also have Notre Dame never having to worry about a conference championship game. It's not the same rules for everybody. So I would do away with conference championships.

To clarify, Mike, real quick, the tiebreak now for the ACC is going to be based on ranking.

Yeah. Yeah.

I believe so.

Which is the way it should be.

It should be.

The way it should be.

That was an embarrassment that Duke ends up your first.

Ranking being a tiebreaker. Obviously conference record.

Yeah.

If you end up in a situation where teams have the same conference record, then yeah, if you don't have head-to-head, head-to-head, then you have ranking. And with the expanded conferences, we're having far too many situations in which you have these wild tie-breaking procedures inside of conferences where 4 of the 5 teams in the mix haven't played one another, right? Which is kind of stinky.

So I'm confused about all of that. It seems like that's just out there looming. And I don't know—

all this expansion, by the way, is driven by the Big Ten and the SEC so they can continue doing what they're doing, which is dominant. Dominate the narrative, use their network partners to fight for them and get more of those teams in.

I just think we're in a real sweet spot right now with college football where the regular season is still enormous and we have a playoff system which we had never had before. I feel like it's the best of both worlds. And I really feel, you know, I'd have to see how 16 felt if they went to that. But I know if it went to 24, The last few weeks in the regular season, they're going to be meaningless. Like, you can lose these games and still wind up making the playoffs. Like, we would really lose what— a huge part of what makes college football so great if we make it 24 teams.

I thought last year, though, was a narrative buster because at the heart of most of the intense college football playoff debates was a game that happened week 1 of the season, right? The head And we're always told if you're going to lose, lose at the beginning. And those losses would not have been a debate if we had 24 teams. No, I, I have an idea to make the regular season mean more while also succumbing to the fact that we're going to have private equity in this thing and Super League is going to be a near certainty as well down the line, which is like a promotion relegation model.

The second thing that I'm really confused about with college football right now, Is there supposed to be like a salary cap when it comes to the amount of money NIL and you're able to spend? Like, what happened to that a year ago? Did they come out with a rule where it's like X amount of dollars that you could spend on NIL? And now it's— I don't understand what the hell is going on there. Is there a salary cap? Is there a certain amount of money you're able to spend? You're not supposed to spend over the course of all of your athletic programs? Like, what happened?

There wasn't an executive order that was signed. And it's like the only executive order out of all the ones that have signed that nobody pays attention to, right?

No one pays attention.

Like, everybody just kept doing their business.

Yeah, I don't get it. So, all right, so I should never think about that again then?

No, I— Save College Sports Act looks like, especially with the recent developments with, uh, Josh Hawley trying to, you know—

what do you say?

There was like, uh, there's a lot going on there. Run a Google. Um, but but then they're trying to inject the trans thing, which is always just gonna be like, okay.

Yeah.

There was actual real momentum, and I was actually impressed with some of the strides that version 1 to version 2 made. The salary cap went up like 20 million, and there was a whole plan for a runway to wean off of that, whereas it would have put 30 programs in this impossible spot where they're gonna lose half their roster with no time whatsoever. I think we just kind of stay in this weird in-between that we're in right now where the NCAA cannot win a case in court to save its life. You're gonna have all these guys that have been in like rookie camps coming back to the sport. You're gonna have pros, guys that maybe showed up that played games in the NBA showing up back in college. I don't like that, but there is going to need to be sweeping change, but you need time to do that, and the NCAA across the year is never out of season and they don't have a labor rep to threaten work stoppage. All these conversations are happening without a representative for the players being there. I do think that college sports probably needs to stop at some point so everyone can iron this out.

But the money machine is just too big for the players too, because the players are now making big-time generational wealth by just going to a place.

Greg, this color looks good on me, right?

It's growing on me. Yeah.

Yeah, I knew it would.

Yeah, a little bit.