What Will Playoff Expansion Look Like In College Football?

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0:39DeWalt. Guaranteed tough. Available at the Home Depot. How doers get more done. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18+. I'm living my best life. Yeah, yeah.

1:15This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host, Brian Weber. Yeah, big shoes to fill. Eisen's a legend. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Rich Eisen Show. Do you know who I am? I'm a guy on television. I have my own show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Welcome to the program. It's always outstanding to keep the chair warm for Mr. Eisen and the fellas. Brian Weber with you. Hope you're having a great Tuesday. I am saying Tuesday to remind myself it is Tuesday because all of these days run together during a long holiday two week.

1:56Hopefully for you, you break from work or if they're making you show up, stick it to the man. You now have authorization from a fill-in host. We're going to have a good time together for the next three hours. If you follow me on the X platform, I mentioned the blueprint. I have four, maybe four and a half hours of scintillating content mapped out. We're going to cram it into this three-hour radio extravaganza, but the goal is to be interactive. You can pick up the phone, 844-204-7424, even if we don't take a call today. And this is your first time tolerating slash enduring slash perhaps enjoying my approach.

2:35I will give out the phone number frequently so you have it top of mind when Rich returns from vacation on Monday. your best option to express an opinion is the X platform that is B.W. Weber. Weber with two Bs. The goal is to give you plenty of runway. In fact, yesterday, we only had one guest. Probably too much of me, but things happen in life. Today, we'll double that. We'll go to two guests, but none until midway through our number two of the show. So if you got something to say, join me. We're going to jump right in talking NFL. I do read your thoughts on the X platform, and some of you are of the mindset I'm talking too much NBA.

3:21I appreciate your thoughts, but let me just give you a quick overview as to my approach. If you've not heard me before, and I don't want to be delusional to think you're hanging on every word from a fill-in host, I could talk NBA off the top. Were you aware that today is the 15th anniversary of LeBron's decision taking his talents to South Beach. That gives me license to make a nice radio pivot. That was then. This is now. Where is LeBron going? But I do take your thoughts under advisement, and I know who I'm filling in for. Rich Eisen is the face of NFL Network, their first employee. In fact, when he joined that network in 2003 here in Southern California, I joined Tennis Channel right around the same time.

4:11Who do you think made the better business decision? And note, I'm not talking Wimbledon today. I don't try to be self-indulgent, but if you're with me on July 4th, and the vast majority of you hopefully had something better to do, or yesterday, the NBA still warranted, I'd say, about a 60-40 split between hoops and football. Today, we're going 80 % football, okay? So it's wall-to-wall football. Now, I'm going to use Aaron Rodgers as my catalyst to expand the focus. We're not doing 20 minutes on the Epstein list. That's a different radio show you're looking for. When we get to the NBA in the next hour of the show, we'll bring in my pal, Kurt Heelan, lead NBA writer for NBCSports.com.

5:00With the NBA on NBC returning this fall, cue up. Round ball rock, somewhere John Tesh is rehearsing right now. Final hour, in addition to the college football, I'm going to hit on in 20 minutes because you may not be aware of the fact Big 12 media days are underway. There are coaches spouting cliches at a podium somewhere in Frisco, Texas. We'll take you around the nation. We'll get you lined up for how the season could play out on the field. with a reminder, we have a monumental matchup. Week one, not week zero, which is a thing in college football. Texas is coming to Ohio State. We'll hit on the big schools and the big themes when we say hello to Pete Futek of collegefootballnews.com.

5:49In fact, part of me wants to start with college football because I've been monitoring the quotes that have been coming out of Big 12 media days. And while the Big 12 does not warrant national conversation in depth, they are plucky. They are scrappy. I'll give them credit as someone still processing my grief of the murder of the Pac-12. And yes, it was a murder, not a death. A homicide occurred on the West Coast. Big 12 survived in part because they have a creative CEO slash commissioner. and their commissioner is an outdated term when you consider the billions of dollars of revenue flowing through college sports.

6:30Brett Jormach came to the podium today and said something that makes too much sense for it to work in college football. Quote, we continue to believe in the 5-11 model, and that's five automatic bids because it's going to 16 at the end of this year. when we get to the conclusion of this season. Next year, the playoff expansion will be a 16-team model, although the particulars have to be worked out. We want to earn it on the field. We do not need a professional model because we are not the NFL. Thank you. A voice of sanity. Problem is, he's running the wrong conference because the Big 12 and ACC are just going along for the ride.

7:20This sport is owned and controlled by a cartel comprised at the top of the sport by the Big Ten and the SEC. Our only hope for not having eight automatic qualifiers next year in a field of 16 teams, four going to the Big Ten and four going to the SEC is the collective power of the SEC head coaches who push back on the Big Ten's model. This is a Big Ten-driven initiative, and we'll get there coming up in 15 minutes. Aaron Rodgers, you might have heard, has gone to Pittsburgh. This is not breaking news. The reason why, and let me give attribution because there's too much stealing going on in the business.

8:05I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich. 844-204-7424, the number to call all football for the first 45 minutes of the program. Just a little NBA to wrap things up with Mike Brown's hiring becoming official yesterday by the Knicks. What are realistic expectations for that team in the battered Eastern Conference that's on the way. Mike Florio, good friend of the program, had the snarky headline on his website this morning here on the West Coast regarding Aaron Rodgers' fascination with Jeffrey Epstein and that client list that according to the Department of Justice does not exist. Here's my motivation to talk Aaron today.

8:49As I went to the grocery store, and yes, I'm just like you. You know, when you're a guest host, you would think you have a concierge. Not the case. So as I was putting my items on the belt, and quick aside, every time I go to the grocery store, they're trying to hustle me to the self-checkout. And it's not that I'm lazy. I want people to have jobs because AI is coming for all of us. The moment a robot can spout cliches and over-enunciate the way that I do, I am dead man walking. So I always say to the guy, yes, I can go over there. I'm trying to keep you employed. As I do, I still go to the bank.

9:30And look, I'm older than my enthusiastic delivery might suggest. And if you hit me up on the X platform. Here's the challenge. I have a picture of me circa 1977. And then my avatar is a shot when I was an NFL sideline reporter for Fox in 2002. So I'm not hiding. I'm leaning into looking okay for my age. You can Google me to find out my current batter condition. But as somebody who survived and navigated a tough, challenging occupation. I just want people to work. And yes, I still go to the bank. I get paper checks. Anything else? I get the milk delivered. Every time I'm in the bank, I'm getting hustled to an ATM.

10:17And apparently I'm not as persuasive a communicator as I thought, because nobody is listening to Uncle Brian saying, I want you to have a job at the checkout counter the other day on the cover of us weekly yes magazines are still a thing aaron rogers was staring back at me with this bold tabloid headline the most mysterious man in sports that i will not spend time on the celebrity romances i don't care if he's married or not. Page six of the New York Post, TMZ, keep doing the research. They can't find a marriage certificate. Now, maybe it was a commitment ceremony. I don't care. None of that is relevant to our conversation.

11:05And the reason I'm not going to give you more details is I'm cheap. I didn't purchase that magazine. I had about 30 seconds waiting to hand my credit card to the lovely person who was ringing me up. And the highlights that I could pull in my fleeting moments of not wanting to purchase the magazine really centered on his continued friction with his family. And again, none of that is important when it comes to a sports conversation. Also, I'm going to tread lightly. I mentioned yesterday, but I understand the audience is always changing, especially when there's a fill-in hack like me in the chair.

11:44The host of this program, Rich Eisen, who had the innovative idea to merge sports and entertainment and does it better than anybody each day on this show, will be competing in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship coming up on Friday in beautiful South Lake Tahoe, Nevada, amongst the field Aaron Rodgers. So I'm not presuming that Aaron is hanging on every word, although I mentioned Epstein twice, so that might have got a spidey sense going. But celebrities have people. I don't need Team Aaron rolling up on Rich and then I'm not invited back on Labor Day. So I'm making it abundantly clear this is not a conversation about his personal life.

12:29I don't care who he's canoodling with or what's going on with the family. I am interested in his evolution as a person or how he chooses to express himself because, again, if you care at all about my background and the things I prioritized over the years, the primary reason I'm here is that I work with Rich at NFL Network. When we launched, they launched, but I was part of it. I'll do the we, the morning show that now continues under a different name and they keep changing the format. that we did at 3 o 'clock in the morning here in Southern California, 2012 into 2013. I think about that Aaron Rodgers not as a player because like the rest of us, other than Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers reminds us that as we get older, things fall apart.

13:18He is much more of an old-school, prototypical quarterback who has not aged well because they take a beating in the pocket, and he has not been as fanatical as Brady was, myopically focused on extending his career. I tolerated about half of the Aaron Rodgers Netflix docuseries, and it's pretty clear even as he was committed to doing everything he could to accelerate the timeline, coming back from his Achilles injury, he is not living and dying with the inner monologue, am I going to have a carb today? And that's what made Brady one of one. But as we've seen, the decline in play of Rodgers, undeniably, his last few years in Green Bay, he fell off that cliff that so many talking heads were projecting as the demise for Brady that didn't happen until the second half of his last year with the Buccaneers, and that playoff loss to the Cowboys of all people.

14:25If you're losing to the Cowboys at home, you know you've hit rock bottom. But that's not earth-shattering news that Rodgers has slowed down now that he's pushed into his early 40s. What I am interested in is the evolution of his persona because I think back to those days, and again, this is 12 years ago, but he's had such a long public life. Aaron Rodgers was a charismatic guy, and he still can be, but he never said anything that was semi-controversial, dare I say wacky, and I don't have to break down the three hours he spent with Joe Rogan because there was no football involved there, but you might have seen the headlines that emanated from that strange conversation with his now well-documented fascination on conspiracies.

15:17I'm just wondering what happened to this guy. Now, my theory is this, and I'll go autobiographical. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich. You can pick up the phone, 844-204-7424, talking college football now in less than 10 minutes, as we'll use the start of Big 12 Media Days to give me license to go all in on a sport that I love more than the NFL. and I am very excited, at least by the rhetoric coming out of the Big 12 Conference. They're going to push back hard on what I think is, again, this is hyperbole, it would be a sports crime to allow the Big 10 to have their proposal come into focus and give that conference and the SEC half of the field with automatic bids.

16:03Let's tell it like it is. They're going to get that number without having to have automatic qualifiers because they're the Big Ten and the SEC, and they have the majority of the best teams and all the money. So they don't need to put it into the bylaws. Let's actually have games that matter on the field. But I went to a school that did not prioritize football, although we've had our peaks. You might have heard of John Elway, Andrew Luck, Jim Harbaugh. I'm looking forward to Harbaugh against Pete Carroll going head-to-head again twice in the division. What's your deal? My college roommate now, let me be as vague as possible, is a co-owner of a professional hockey team in the NHL and a minority owner, small owner, of an NFL team.

16:53He's done just fine. Speaking of bad decisions, Tennis Channel versus NFL Network 2003. Yeah, I'm going all in with Arena Sabalenka, who's playing well at Wimbledon. And my roommate, I knew he was destined for big things. This is not based on jealousy. And I'm going to make a point here. I give this dude major props. He's the same guy. I Googled the net worth because I didn't believe it in the Wall Street Journal. It's factual. We're talking billions. And if I say billions, I'm a broadcaster. I have to say billions with a B. He is still down to earth. We haven't gotten together in 20 years. But if I emailed him, not based on this topic, the guy gets back to me in 90 seconds because he's a robot and I think because he cannot allow any disorder in his life but he's not changed at all let's now contrast that with other people who get the money and the fame and the adulation and then they have no one in their life to tell them no and they have no one to say you're wrong or this is just weird and I'm not talking about vaccines or anything like that I am just curious and maybe we'll find out down the road as to what went on with Aaron Rodgers and his decision either to articulate these views that he's always had or he's developed and that's okay we have a first amendment for a reason but if we're just talking about the football perspective I'm not saying the two are connected as he has gotten a little more odd from my perspective Obviously, his game has fallen apart because he's a shadow of himself physically.

18:38Now, to be fair, if you still cared about the Jets down the stretch, as they were a massive disappointment, and very interesting, on his way out the door, he smeared their run game. May I pose the question, who was the offensive coordinator of the Jets while he was there? Nathaniel Hackett. Why was he there? because he was friends with Aaron, because that guy should never have gotten another coaching job after the debacle of his one-year run as head coach of the Broncos. But if you actually watched the Jets play at length over the last five to seven games of the regular season, Aaron did look better.

19:20I'll give him that. And remember, the Achilles injury is really tough to come back from. We got word from the Pacers making what we presume to be true official. Tyrese Halliburton will miss the entire upcoming season after going down to Game 7 of the NBA Finals. And you factor in Rodgers' age. Again, I will acknowledge he did the work to come back, was ready for Week 1, maybe should have been a little bit more deliberate with his approach, but he wanted to be on the field, and finally looked like a semblance of Aaron Rodgers at the end of the year. So what does all of this mean for Pittsburgh?

19:56I don't care. He's going to continue to go on the McAfee show. He can say whatever he wants. That seems like a very anti-Steeler approach. But remember, Mike Tomlin has handled how many knuckleheads would you like to list that Tomlin has placated on a Big Word Tuesday? Think about all of the weird stuff that has been either demonstrated or said by Steeler wide receivers over the years. going back to Antonio Brown, and then George Pickens talking his way out the door. So Tomlin knows how to handle quirky personalities. But if we're just looking at things, and we'll get back to this in the next hour of the program, from a pure football perspective, Steelers won nine games last year.

20:44How much better are they this year? And I realize that on paper, picking up Jalen Ramsey looks like a significant addition, But speaking of smearing people on the way out the door, you might have seen the report from a paper in South Florida. Among the reasons why Ramsey was expendable, primarily he's making too much money for his productivity at this stage of his career. He was habitually either late or not showing up for meetings. Now, you can do that if you're still a shutdown quarter. When your play declined, suddenly people leak it to the media. Ramsey plus Jonu Smith plus Darius Slay. DK Metcalf is an upgrade.

21:24In no way can I undermine that. I just wonder, and we'll all find out together, when Rodgers sees his old team week one, it's the Jets and the Steelers. Very funny how that matchup just crystallized out of nowhere. If Rodgers is an upgrade over Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, maybe Pittsburgh wins a playoff game. Maybe. But I'm not certain that's the case. And it's just going to be fascinating to see how this plays out because Rodgers made it pretty clear, although he left the door open slightly, saying it's probably his last year. I think he has some dignity. If he's embarrassing himself, he's going to go away.

22:02And I'll throw it out to you. What are your reasonable expectations for the Steelers in a division that includes a Baltimore team that is comprehensive on both sides of the football? Yes, Lamar Jackson finally has to produce in the postseason. but he's got talent around him, and the Bengals will be better because statistically their defense cannot be any worse, even if they don't pay Triandrickson because that's what Cincinnati does. I'm not convinced Rodgers is a significant upgrade over the collective output of Fields and Wilson, but that's why we love this sport because everything is going to be demonstrated on the field coming up when we get to September.

22:40I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. 844-204-7424. I'll check the X account coming up. That's B.W. Weber. Weber with two Bs. Straight ahead, we make the move to college football. More thoughts on what's being said today at Big 12 Media Days with direct shots being taken at the Big Ten, and I'm here for it. And we'll try to nail down what playoff expansion will look like, the pros and cons that come with it. That is on the docket. I'm Brian Weber, in for rich.

23:39Because in today's business environment, winning teams don't react to change. They shape it. Learn more at visit.kpmg.us slash velocity. Rich Eisen here with some advice. If high interest credit card debt is grinding you down, it might be time to call an audible with a SoFi personal loan. It consolidates your debt into one low monthly payment with no fees required. And with as soon as the same day funding, you can make the right play fast. Call an audible on your debt today at SoFi.com slash debt play. Loans originated by SoFi Bank N.A. Member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. N.M. L.S. 696-891.

24:14Fast funds. Terms apply at SoFi.com slash debt play. Taking a quick break to tell you how Saturday's game time can get a little messy. Your crew just came over to watch. Snacks on the table. Drinks in hand. And somebody celebrating like they just won the whole season and beyond. And when that energy gets going, your walls can end up taking the hit. Whether it's a big spill or a noticeable scuff, that's where Behr Ultra Interior Paint comes in. It adds an extra durable stain-blocking finish that helps your walls hold up for the whole season. It also delivers outstanding coverage and hide in fewer coats with easy application and a smooth, even finish that goes on clean from the first pass.

24:51Plus, that easy, clean finish helps walls stay looking new longer. So before the next kickoff, give your space game-ready defense and coverage that goes the distance. Behr Ultra, only at the Home Depot. We supersized the monologue, not by design, but I got rolling there a bit, so we'll keep this concise. And then coming up in 15 minutes after we handle the college football, just a smidge, just a scintilla on a big word Tuesday of NBA in advance of our NBA analysis that will be provided in the next hour of the program when we check in with Curt Heelan of NBCSports.com. will use the official word that came out of Madison Square Garden yesterday, that Mike Brown has been hired as head coach of the Knicks.

25:41I was on the air when he was offered the job, and I didn't mean to be too glib, but I threw out the observation, well, he's been offered the job. What's he going to say, no? And if you think about Mike's body of work and who he's worked for, the wacky ownership group in Sacramento where he should never have been fired, think about how long that team had been dormant, and he helped transform them, won his second Coach of the Year award. He worked for Doc Jerry Buss at the end of his life, and things were a little odd around the Lakers at that time. Plus, you never want to be the guy who follows the guy.

26:18I know you have to take the Laker job if it's offered to you, but who with a rational thought says, yes, sign me up to succeed Phil Jackson and Mike Brown worked for Dan Gilbert not once but twice. So he's prepared for the lunacy that comes with James Dolan. That's coming up in 15 minutes. I have more thoughts on what's going on at Big 12 Media Day. And I'm not taking shots at the conference. I had a long professional relationship with the University of Arizona. That has ended because my family's no longer based in Tucson. And I appreciate just the survival of this conference because they could have gone down.

27:02They should have had a death blow when they got the news that Texas and Oklahoma were leaving, but they hired the right guy. And if you know anything about Brett, your Mark's background, primarily in marketing, worked for Jay-Z before he got into the college space. He is someone who thinks creatively. He's a dealmaker. So Big 12 is coming up with interesting revenue streams. And at this point, they're just trying to make sure they and the ACC still have a voice. Because we know in any question in life, simply follow the money. Who's got more money than the Big Ten and the SEC? I think you know the answer to that.

27:44So it used to be the SEC would get things going with their media days, a concept I mocked years ago. Who needs media days? But obviously college football has become this behemoth that all the conferences do. And to get attention, and it's working, I'm talking about the Big 12. I'm mentioning them specifically several times. They jumped in front of the other conferences. Might feel a little early to be talking college football, but Labor Day also is coming early this year, if you haven't looked at the calendar. So the time is right, and that makes me feel like I have authorization to talk more college football than I even normally do because I love the college game more than I love the NFL.

28:25I mentioned off the top the quote from your mark saying, we do not want, we speaking on behalf of his conference, college football to be a knockoff of the NFL. And he went on to say, quote, he's doubling down on his opposition to the Big Ten's multiple automatic qualifying model. But here's where we get to the ultimate college football situation. He also said, as he met with reporters after his address, he doesn't necessarily, quote-unquote, necessarily know if the Big Ten and the SEC have, quote-unquote, exclusive power over the future of playoff expansion. Well, how can you not know that? Because the sport is fundamentally broken, and isn't it wild for all the years that we clamored for a playoff, and I'm not going to say I was anti-playoff in any way, but it's just very humorous to me.

29:26When the SEC finally didn't get their way and Alabama didn't get in and we're not having that conversation today, you could just go back and look at the objective facts. Once you had that surprising outcome in that wild ACC championship game with Clemson wrapping up the automatic bid, SMU deserved their slot. I realized they got pummeled by Penn State. We're not talking about results. We're talking about process. But the athletic director of Florida saying at the SEC spring meeting that he didn't think a selection committee works in football. We use a selection committee in every sport in college sports.

30:06But his point was, no, no, no. We only have 12 data points. We need more objective metrics. You know what that sounds like? The BCS. We've seen this movie before and everybody went nuts because, quote unquote, the computers were running the sport. College football cannot get out of its own way. And we've not even gotten to this season. And the majority of the attention, understandably so, because not everyone, and I'm presuming a degree of sophistication, lives and dies with the sport every Saturday. Some people parachute in for the playoffs, which have expanded, and give them more opportunities to consume the product.