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Draftkings Network. Welcome to The Big Suie, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Levitard podcast. I'm sorry. I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now here's The Marching Man to Nowhere, Fatface, and The Habitual Liar. Are we going to get to the Shaquille O'Neal video or we're not going to get to the Shaquille O'Neal video. You now have it.

Is it going to be the new Mike's Dad's Texts? What? Well, that's it. Is it going to become the new Mike's Dad's Text? I don't know what I said. Got it.

Let's go to the Shaquille O'Neal video. A lot of possessives.

It's.

Always tricky. Talking about heat culture.

Let's run that one back. I think I said it well.

Define what heat culture is. What does it really mean? Because you live it, you want a championship here. What is heat culture? I'm going to define it in three words: discipline, motivation, and never giving up. Do you remember in the finals against the Great Derby and the Whisky? We were down, O-2. The world knows I'm a terrible, kick-and-roll defender. You know that, right? But guess what? We're never going to give up. We're going to motivate ourselves. I was shocked when Coach Poof was in Healy. You were out there guarding three-point shooters because everyone had the cater to things that weren't their strengths, right? Yes, we did. We had a great team, of course.

Three words: dedication, discipline, and never giving up.

I mean, Claims Shaq does that on purpose in order to go viral. Yes. Shaq, by the way, I saw him before the game, and he chastised me for not sticking up for him when he made his ball-ball point.

I.

Said, Why do I got to stick up for you? He said, Because you have a show.

Shout out, Abol. Every week, day, but Mondays for some reason. Also the Dan Levitar try to.

Oh, that's nice.

What's with the you standing in Charlotte sitting thing?

I like to stand. She likes to sit down.

That's a pretty simple answer.

What's with you sitting back there and dancing over here?

That covers it.

Shaquille O'Neal has got been mad at me for saying certain things that I've thought are benign. And you say he does this stuff to go viral. They didn't have any fun with it there that he was saying three words and then went more than three words. I have found him to be unusually sensitive. Also, though, more comfortable in his own skin than someone for that size than anyone I have ever met. Oh, I don't know about that. I believe that he carries like I haveI think of big men like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or whatever, going through life ornery, going through life because they've always been the oddball. They've been galked at since childhood. He said it.

Do you know anyone else Shaq-Sais? Do you have a bunch of friends Shaq-Sais? You're like, He looks the most comfortable.

Seven footers is what I meant. Now, why would you guys laugh at Dan is Shaq's size? What's funny about Dan is.

Shaq's size? Well, let's hear him out. He could be making a wait point.

Because you're unexpectedly large. You're a.

Big guy. You have a presence about you.

Enough. I thought you'd be like 5'11 when I met you. Very wide.

This happens all the time. People that meet me, I tell.

You what, I trust your free throws more.

Evidently, people who meet me think that I'm much smaller than I am. However, I don't believe it is fair to say that I am Shaq's size. Again, I can be hulking and fit in Shaq's navel. I am- SweETY. -huddle. Yes, I am- Hool-dool. Yes, I am, yes, sweaty as well. Yes, as sweaty as Shaq, I will allow. But Shaq's size, I will not allow. Shaq's weight, I will not allow. I will not allow that. No, I won't allow it. That you've gone... No, no, no, no, no. Now you've gone too far. He has lost a lot of weight. He's not-.

So have you, though.

Your feet are nicer.

Thank you. Do you know that for a fact?

I saw Dan's feet when he was Fred Flintstone. Not terrible.

I was barefooted as the gester yesterday, too. You were? You were? Yeah.

What? You're giving that away for free?

Yeah, everybody could have- Would you.

Like to talk college football?

I would. Can I.

Say one thing real quick about heat culture?

Yes.

Okay. The culture court. I mean, he's already laughing. Oh, my God.

She said this to me in the middle of a.

Game, by the way. Yeah, I'm staring at the side signage under the scoreers table, and it says, Hardest working, best condition, most professional, unselfest, toughest, meanest, nasty team in the NBA. I was like, if I were a visiting team, if I were a player in a visiting team and I came here and I saw that, it would enrage me so much that I would play hard. Heat culture would work on me only as the visiting team. I'd be like, Oh, you guys think you're the nice team? Watch this. And then I have 50 points.

That's sure. We're giving it away for free. Usually, that's in our locker room, or only we can see it.

Giving it away. Putting the bulletin board material on the court. Yes.

She's not wrong about that. It could backfire on you. It would be something that would piss people off. But since Mike Ryan mentioned, Do you want to talk some college football? I'm assuming this is in reference to the footshow that-.

Yes, the footshow.

That Jessica has. That's the internal name for footgirls, the footshow. Oh.

Well, when are we going to do that? Because the season's now over and we still.

Not going to have a name.

No, no, it's still going on. We don't have a name. What are you talking about? No, not work. The season has just begun.

It's an excellent point. Not just bowl season, conference championships obviously underway this weekend, but it's cruting season. It's portal season.

Coach and.

Carousel season. It's incredible right now. This is actually the apex of the college football season. And we, yes, have consulted with the talents who weren't super receptive, but not hesitant for the footgirls title. And we took that information and we hired a very pricey consulting firm, and we've come back with a big open for Jess and Lucy's unnamed College Football show that we will unveil this week.

I have not heard this yet. I do not give this my support.

Footwomen?

I'm not giving it away. We'll find out together.

I feel like everybody is rooting for Alabama for the first time ever.

I am an Alabama fan.

I've never rooted for them more.

Chris Cody, you are absolutely right. I decided this year, you know what? It would be funny if Alabama won the national championship. It would.

Be hilarious. I just want chaos. I want everyone to win with one loss. I want Florida State to win barely, so they stay undefeated. Oh, man, I just want FSU to not make it undefeated. That's really what I want here.

Put it on the pole, please, JuJu. Is everybody rooting for Alabama? Because I hadn't considered the idea of that. I really had not thought before you just mentioned it that that would be a possible thing in my lifetime.

I just want in the final year of the 14th playoff for this committee to have the chaos scenario. Yeah, the worst time.

That it would be impossible. That's because everyone off. They haven't had to do it.

That much. That's why I want them to do the thing.

Take Florida State out of there. They've been bailed out. But you can see these rankings headed into Conference Championship Week, them plotting their escape route. That's all these rankings are right now.

Because- Putting FSU at four definitely is like, All right, if they win, they're in. We're not going to make a hard choice.

You can already see by where the rankings are now that they're plotting for what happens if Bama beats Georgia and Texas wins the Big 12, but FSU wins, and Oregon essentially erases their loss against Washington. You could see that this isn't about best team anymore. This is about CYA for the CFP.

Nobody thinks FSU will knock it in, though, with the win, right? What if they barely win? What if they look terrible?

I think they'll get in. I think what would be funny, other than Alabama going to the playoff, would be the pack 12, once again, doing the pack 12 thing, which would be knocking each other out of the playoff entirely, because that has been what the Pac-12 has done for the last however many years. And this year going into the season, it was like, Wow, this is the most stacked Pac-12 conference we've ever seen. There's some great teams like Colorado. There's legitimately, though, great quarterbacks in this league, they're going to have someone in the playoff. But then Washington pulling off the win against Oregon means that Oregon, now a heavy favorite on Friday night, nine and a half points, I think, winning- It keeps going up -would mean that there's no undefeated Pac-12 champion. And it would be very funny if they got left out in the final season of Pac-12. We were like, This is the year they're finally going to have a super competitive team in.

The playoff. Put this on the pole, JuJu, please. Is this CYA for the CFB? I'm confused. Forgive me? P. Give my CFP, excuse me. I'm legitimately confused about why that Washington line keeps going up. Are there injuries that I do not know about?

I don't know what's going on with Pennex, and I don't know if he was just super emotional after the win over Wazu. That could be it. There's not a lot of information, but it looked like he was... They put a cloak over him. He was being escorted out of the stadium, off the field because he couldn't see because there was a cloak all over him. I don't know if he didn't want people to see him emotional or if he was hurt. He looked like something was going on there. So the line would indicate something's up.

The other thing I think that is worth considering, though, is also just that Washington's red zone defense and their passing defense is not very good. Oregon, since the Washington game, has just been an unbelievably unstoppable offense. Having the Heisman front runner, Bo Nicks, against a leaky defense is going to, especially on a neutral field. Remember the first time that they played was at Washington, which is a big part of it. -a big part of... They had a lot of home field advantage in that game.

But a 14-point swing, right?

14-point spread swing. It's a lot of points, right? Nine and a half is a lot of points. But the first time they played, Lucy and I talked about it on our unnamed College football podcast that both of these offenses were playing really, really well, but Oregon had the advantage on defense. Dan Landing is someone that has coached defense before, and you trust his defense. I think that Oregon's only gotten better throughout the season and actually losing to Washington, they've probably fixed some things that make them a pretty good contender going into the playoff if they do.

Actually make it. Would you agree with the notion that aside from a college football playoff spot, aside from the Pac-12 championship, this is also the Heisman Trophy on the line on Friday night with the two quarterbacks there?

It would appear that way, right? Because I just got my notification. I'm going to do this preemptively. Oh, wrong one.

Charlotte about.

To.

Talk?

Okay.

Don't do that for sure. I'm sorry. I feel bad.

-you know what?

I'm never going to stop. I'm never going to stop trying- Keep shooting. -as if you could.

Jeremy.

Teche. Thank you, Mike. I pressed the wrong button because I didn't have my.

Glasses on. Shack fingers.

Are you going to talk about your.

Heisman vote? Yes, because he asked me about which way to vote. Sam Hartman? Because of that game.

-sam Hartman? -why did you just say Jeremy Techet?

Probably because I tell bad.

Jokes, but they're actually good. He tells bad jokes on purpose.

That's my job. That's mine. I do that. -on purpose? Wait. -what? I do that. I'm playing someone.

That we tried. As if.

We're the only ones who have bad jokes in this crowd.

Bokes.

I have decided not to cast it until after watching that game. But I have been surprised that Washington keeps... That the point spread would change that much from the first time they played, that home field advantage would essentially be worth 14 points if Pennex isn't actually hurt. The point that Mike made about, though, the line being where it is, people know something. Is anyone else worseworried about the fact that Matt Rule is saying that a college quarterback now goes for $1.5 to $2 million, and in some cases, $6 million. That's what Matt Rule is saying, whether it's true or not. That all of this stuff, this money, this amount of money, whether it's gambling lines or this amount of money, that you're putting this pressure on kids, they're still kids. I understand that they're famous kids and important kids, but when the professionalism seeps into the sideline and a kid is making his way off the field and Caleb Williams is crying at the end of his game, it's like it's an awful lot of pressure to put on kids. On top of everything else, you make the money skyrocket, and you wonder how much gambling information is out there and whether a guy.

Is hurt or not. Well, then we shouldn't put any of it on TV and we shouldn't pay their coaches $10 million a year either.

They should be rich kids.

Don.

Libertard. What's up, JT? What's up, guys?

What are you doing?

What's up, man?

Good luck today, boy.

If you.

Know him the way I know him growing up, everyone knows-What's.

Going on, boy? -i come in peace. Don't do that. You just embarrassed me so much.

Stugats. Okay, guys, nick Jonas is walking this way.

Can we get him to say what's up? I know exactly what I'm going to say we have that shot on 18. Oh, my God. I think we're trying to do that. Do we have Charles? Yeah, we're going to get Barkley. Hey, what's up, nick? Good luck today. That shot on 18, my God.

You.

Made a weird… That time you embarrassed us. Yeah, I definitely did.

Boy. This is the Dan.

Levator Show with the Stugat.

Charlotte and Amine had to step out to do oddball every day, except for Monday, they do it. It is unusual, but we brought in a big gun to replace them. Lucy has flown in to talk about the show that is not named footgirls, that is going to have now imaging, and it's going to have production elements. It has grown into something more popular. It has grown into something that people are listening to, they're looking for because you guys really know your college football. You're really enthusiastic about your college football. This is something that has been lost in sports. Jason Kidd ripped everybody the other day, and JuJu ripped us in the first hour. Can we just be happier and positive around stuff? And you guys, your enthusiasm for college football has been obvious to everybody. But, Lucy, are you on board? Because it seems like Mike is strong footing you two in trying to push upon you a show title that neither of you want.

None of this imaging. The name was not approved by Jess. I haven't seen it. It wasn't approved by me either. I don't know what we're getting into. I'm a little nervous.

I would just say wait and see. First off, I haven't tipped my hand here or my foot. I have not committed because I want you guys to genuinely be surprised by all the care this company has put in behind this great college football property. You got the knowledge. You got really charismatic talents. All you're lacking is brand awareness because we failed. We haven't named it, and we're going to just punch it up a little bit, and I think it goes straight to the moon.

And today we're doing that? We're unveiling to them. They are reluctant, and they have not seen.

Any of this. It'll be debuting on this week's edition of footgirls. I mean, whatever we end up calling it.

All right, they should have some ownership over what we're doing.

They do. They do. They do. It is their show.

They should have some creative control, though, over how it is that it's packaged. Metallark Media does not want to force upon them creative constraints.

How about it's a game of feet?

We're a... Hey, how about some literal ownership? Maybe we'll accept your title if you give us more equity in the company.

Just look, the company is helping work for you here. I'm just trying to help.

The program has gotten very popular, again, because their enthusiasm shines through.

We're just going to punch it up.

We'll punch up. Lucy is headed to the SEC Championship Game. Are you with, Jessica, on this? Are you now rooting for Alabama? Are you trying to be an impartial Metallark journalist as you go up there?

I have never been an impartial journalist in my life. I am so rooting for Alabama. I want some chaos. We didn't have the chaos we deserved in the regular season. Not a ton of upsets. We deserve it now.

Chaos.

Chaos. Chaos. Chaos. Chaos. Lokey been a bad college football season.

No, not a bad season.

There's no such thing as bad college football.

It's.

Been very chalky.

It's been super chalky. And if you're one that fancies, upsets, this has not been the year for you.

Was that an exaggeration from you this weekend when you sent me a text saying that top 10 teams as double-digit favorites are 79 and two this year?

No, it actually got worse after the weekend. No, straight up. We're talking straight up, not ATS.

Sorry, Taylor, because North Carolina-.

Yeah, the two were Clemson at the start of the season. You can maybe not even pay attention to that because it was a preseason ranking. But yeah, UNC has a distinction then. If you discredit the preseason rankings, UNC has a distinction of being the lone L there, which is uncommon.

It's weird. I expect college kids to be college kids. I expect them to not be trustworthy because our... Or trustworthy on reliability because they're learning. They're going to college in order to learn. I never expect what you just described for me. I expect to be surprised by results. I'm surprised that in 2023, I'm in a place where you guys are arguing that Alabama is the lovable underdog here that America is.

Rooting for. I think it just brings us the chaos. I don't want them to win at all. I want them to just beat Georgia so there's a lot of chaos. I'm fine with them getting in. I'm fine with them losing once they're in, though.

I disagree. I want them to win everything because I think that I reckoned with a few years ago after Alabama demolished Notre Dame in the playoff, once again, although Notre Dame did cover 17 points, Brad. I realized- Yeah, Jesus cover. -alabama is one of the only teams that I'm okay with winning at all because they are just winners. Nick Saban is a winner. Their players are winners. Their fans are winners. They just win everything. I don't think I can live with myself with college football if Michigan wins, if Florida State wins. If Washington- I mean, Washington. We agree. They're fine. Yeah, they're fine. They're fine. Oregon, I don't know. That one... But you get what I'm saying here. Ohio State, like all of these teams that I know they've all won, a lot of these teams have won the last decade or plus. But Alabama is the one team that I'm like, if Alabama wins, I just go on and I live my life because they win. That's what they do. They're Alabama. And now their offensive coordinator is Tommy Reiss. And that also proves me right because I thought he was a very good offensive coordinator when he was at Notre Dame, and a lot of people didn't.

And then guess what? Nick Saban wanted him, which I think already should prove me right. But if he wins a championship, double right.

nick Saban won a lot of people.

It's the greatest rooting interest that any of us have around here, being right.

A small part of me wants Michigan to win just so I can see them get it taken away.

I don't know where you were going with that one, but.

That would be very funny. It's weird with Alabama this year, and fullcast after dark mentioned this after they lost to Texas is, rooting against them isn't as fun because we all agree the generational talent, the dominant- One thing I know. -isn't there. It's a weird thing because they're right there on the cusp of yet another college football playoff. But people who observe college football all have reached a consensus. This is a pretty good job by nick Saban because this doesn't look like the Alabama teams of years previous. So in that sense, when you compare them to previous incarnations of themselves, they are scrappy.

I will say if they do go on to upset Georgia, which let's be honest, I don't think that they will. There are five.

And a half points of they- One thing I know, Alabama will come out to a 7-0 star.

You just said they're winners. They win. They only know how to win.

Then Georgia will be up 28-7.

I stand by that. What I want to say is that if they do end up doing something crazy in the rest of the season, Jayla Millrose pass to Isiah Bond in the final 30 seconds of the Iron Bull this year will go down as one of the... It already should because it was watching that game and watching that play. It did something to my brain that I didn't know could happen anymore. I felt pure ecstasy. What an absolute insane way to score a touchdown in that game from fourth and goal from the 31-yard line. He's scrambling. He can't find anyone. Everyone's double-manned, except one guy in the back of the end zone, and he throws a dime and the guy catches it. Auburn fans around the world just sank their heads into their hands. It was an absolutely crazy finish in a series where there's been crazy finishes all the time. We're used to craziness in the Iron Bowl. It was a masterclass. What a play drawn up by Tommy Reiss on that fourth and goal from the 31.

And you forgot the best part. Hugh Free is losing in the process. How awesome.

Was that? It was great. Herbie and Fowler have been around a lot of college football. We have the video right now that we can play their reaction while they're in the booth in Gainesville at the Swamp, about to call F. S. U. Florida, reacting to that finish in the Iron Bowl. I love the big punches. This is awesome. I had watched not just their reaction to that, but also the play because the play was legendary. Jess mentioned something that people were doubled man. Here's a crazy thing about that final play. They gave Alabama, the secondary was 20 yards back, and yet everyone found a way to get deep. It was crazy. Also, that was the third Reed, Millrow made. He could have tossed it in the middle of the end zone, and he would have two open receivers there, too. The breakdown was epic and just so unexpected because of the distance.

What was Hufrey's doing in the time out?

You have a prevent defense, and they found a way to get behind your defense. How?

He was writing his post-game speech already. He was like, I.

Got his ass. I feel like the more important question is why do we have so many camera angles of Kirk, Herb, Street, and Fowler? You know what? There's one behind them. And then they show this top left one that's not... Neither of these are shots they would use on the broadcast. There's one behind them. Then they cut to above them to the right. It's just like, how many angles do we need?

I believe that that is the physical manifestation of the joy that you will get from Lucy and Jessica on a show that will not be called Footgirls because MetalArk Media is a progressive company, and we will not force upon them something that- You know, in.

The event that it is called footgirls, you're really taint in the jury pool at this point. It could be a celebration. And again, it's not about their feet. Though they are lovely fans, and you should subscribe to see them, it's about football. And they just so happen to be girls talking about football.

You mentioned that.

And if we just put those things together, you have the brand awareness that I'm talking about while totally manipulating an algorithm.

Can you play for me again that video? Because these are 10-year-old brothers. You rarely see.

Adults.

In professional broadcasting positions where, ridiculously, they still make you wear sports coats to cover this stuff on television so you can be this credible. They look like 10-year-olds. And what I want to tell you about that play is I felt like I was on that play in the 1950s because I was at the park with my dog, and I got into the car, and I went to the place on satellite radio where it was 24:20, and I'm like, Let me listen to this. They keep going backwards. They're backwards at the goal line. Now it's fourth and 31. Everything you guys just described, I'm listening to a local broadcast. I don't even remember whether it's Alabama or Auburn. It's satellite radio. But what you guys just described in detail, imagine me in my car, because I sat there looking at my radio with my mouth open, and I'm like, How did that happen? How did he have enough time to do that? How did someone get open in the back of the end zone from 30 yards away when your entire defense has to be planted at the goal line? I'm looking at it, and it's as if it had Belch.

My radio had Belch, a total mystery. Because I'm like, these announcements are behaving as if that's something that should have happened based on what they're watching on the field. And I'm like, Did Auburn just leave the field? How did that.

Physically happen? It does remind me of when I missed the Kick 6 because my dad really wanted to watch the kick-off of the Notre.

Dame-stanford game. Your dog must have been confused why you were staring at the radio with your mouth open.

Yes, of course, my dog was confused.

I don't think he was confused.

Like, Owner, we're at the park. Let's go.

I said don't get game of feet. I got to be honest, Chris.

It's a game of feet.

They measure in yards and sometimes with chains. Game of inches. And occasionally an index card.

The big tall. It's not the big tall.

I.

Miss her already.

I want to talk to you about something that Mike Ryan said about the ratings because I want you guys to understand. You were talking in a different segment about how the ratings are calculated and everyone's just making it up. But I specifically wanted to talk to Lucy and Jessica about the fact that Fox is now touting that Big Noon has caught ESPN on the college on Saturdays. I know the numbers are fudged, and we can play with the numbers a lot, but I'd like to get into the bad math that a lot of people are doing because the Fox show is coming after ESPN's Game Day. And I also want to get to that Elon Musk, Bob Iger video. Put her on the pole, JuJu, at Levitard show. Who's Saeed John, Musk or Iger? Don Levitard.

That thing. I love that sound. Is that a bassoon? What is that sound?

It's.

A tuba.

Is it.

A tuba? I believe it's a tuba. Are you sure? Yes.

I would be very interested to find out. Really? Let's get a musicologist on. I think it's a bassoon. I love Woodwinds.

Who.

Do we know this? Who's the music version of Ron McGill that we could have on? I think it's a bassoon. To hear that sound and to idea it. Stugats. I mean, I heard that, and I think I was the butt of that joke.

That was Billy.

No, prior to that. I'm going in a chronological order here. -i'm going in a chronological order here. -baphoon. Yes. Keep up, Dan.

This.

Is the Dan Levator Show with the Stugats.

Jessica and Lucy have been out in front in telling me again and again that, Dan, this isn't your college game day anymore. I'm looking at it and I'm saying, Pat McAfee is a star. That show needs to get younger. People are complaining about Lee Corso. They're not allowing him to age with Grace on television. And when I say they, I mean people on the Internet, but I also mean ESPN because I don't know how you allow Lee Corso to age with Grace when he's having difficulties with age and broadcasting because this stuff speeds up. But they added McAfee, and McAfee is a star, and they're renting McAfee. Mcafee made his own stardom, and they gave him a number of unusual freedoms that Disney is usually not willing to give. They gave him ownership of all of his stuff, and they're allowing him to curse on the air, and they're bleeping it, but they're bleeping it in a way that makes us wonder, yesterday, well, wait a minute. If Aaron Rogers is saying G-F-Y, and they're changing it to finger, and they're not bleeping the finger, and I'm asking the question, Wait a minute, is finger something that should be on Disney Air?

Or is the bleeper wrong there? Should it be on our air? Is that a word that should be bleeped? I don't even know. I'm pretty sure George Carlin's seven words you can't say on television actually weren't seven words you couldn't say on television. I think that he was just making those up as.

The words. I actually don't think that they bleep them. They have the warning beforehand. I've told you before, the one thing that I picked up on my intro to communications class is you could show hardcore pornography on cable television. It's not subject to the FCC. Those are just internal standards and standards that they'd like to honor with their advertisers. But if Chris Fowler says the F word during a broadcast, provided that it's not on network TV, they're not subject to any FCC fine.

But the thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about, because Disney is a brand that is in some public peril that I think in our lifetime we have not seen before, where Bob Iger, one of the great CEOs ever in the history of business, who retired at the perfect time as if he knew the pandemic was coming, perfect retirement somehow, right before the parks closed in China, before the movie theaters have a total problem, he retires. And then he comes back. And now Bob Iger is in the middle of something that Bob Iger could not have expected to ever be in the middle of. He's being quoted, and he's getting in trouble for things like this. He says creators at Disney have lost sight of what their job should be to entertain first, not to give messages. And he says that stories infused with positive messages for the world can be great, but that it shouldn't be the primary job. This is him reacting to losing money and being told that go woke, go broke to Santis. It's the pressure of it. And he's saying, look, look, look, I agree with you. Disney should be about just entertaining.

And so they get McAfee and they give him a new set of rules. But I thought that would result in College Game Day getting bigger and better, more popular. I underestimated the allegiance that the viewer has to David Pollack made me feel a little more comfortable on Saturday mornings. He was there and he's not Pat McAfee, but whatever. He fit with Desmond Howard and he fit with those guys that like him. Now, when I'm reading McAfee, McAfee can be very sensitive. I'm reading him and everyone around him saying he's a good teammate. They all love him. They're all getting along with him. He is a fusive. He is such a positive person. He is a fusive in his praise for the people on that set. But now the numbers are coming back. This is something that McAfee couldn't expect it. I've seen his reaction to some criticism, and he is not enjoying. He's been popular all his life. He's been getting applause all his life. Now, a guy in the media age who grew up on social media is hearing that, yeah, 90 people might be applauding, but there are three that are very loud who aren't applauding.

Actually, I don't think it has that much to do with Pat. I'm not going to make this a Pat McAfee thing. We were talking about all the different layoffs that ESPN has had, and they've affected other things. We were talking about, it's even affecting game day. Yes, you have Herbie there, and you have Corso there. You have Desmond there. These are familiar faces. But over the years, you've stripped away Renaldi, Wojahowski.

You've stripped away- Pollock.

Pollock is part of it. The Bear. Chris Martin. The Bear isn't just someone that's making picks on the side, and it's not like you can just replace him with Stanford Steve, who's not as good against the spread. I had a bad year. But the Bear is a... I'm going to tout a producer here. The Bear was a long-time producer. Who do you think is picking the topics? Do you think he's just a cartoon character? The format of the show, when you take someone like that, you're changing it. You're changing the emotional stories that make you cry in advance of a Purdue, Ohio State game. All that stuff starts going away. Now it's not just going away. Some of that stuff is going to Fox. You couple that with a big year for the Big Ten. You have them being on network television, which is a leg up on ESPN. You have a recipe, especially entering the big game between Ohio State and Michigan, where Michigan fans are participating in an active boycott of ESPN's coverage because they think it's unfair. You have the recipe for big noon Saturday putting up a big number.

To be clear, I'm not blaming McAfee. I'm setting up what's happening here in numbers that are hard to trust and narrative that is going to happen now that Fox states through its PR departments, and it doesn't matter whether it's true or not, all that matters is perception. I always say perception is not reality. But when all you have is perception and fudge numbers, Fox is saying, We've caught College Game Day. We've caught one of the most popular shows in the history of.

Sports television. They want that out there, for sure. Right, I'm not saying it's not a surprise they're saying that.

No, no, but- Also, the noon game was on Fox. And I think generally people will just... I don't know how they measure the ratings because they're three hour long shows, but people will just turn on the channel that they know they're going to watch the game on. So there could be a little bit of that happening. But also, like Mike said, there is all of this fan tension with Game Day because of Pete Thamble's reporting. And there was a weird thing that happened on Saturday where Des Howard, who went to Michigan, called out Thamble for not doing his report in front of the fans. And then Reece Davis was like, Well, he's been getting threats from some lunatic Michigan fans. It was just like, the whole thing was just a lot. And I don't know. I can see why if you're a Big Ten fan or Michigan fan, you're just going to turn on Fox because the game is on Fox. And maybe it's nothing deeper than that because I still think as a college football fan, I never missed a college game day for over a decade. Every single morning at 8:00 AM, central or 9:00 AM when I was in college, I'd turn it on.

I still think it's a superior product.

I don't think it's that hard to figure out what's going on with college game day because it was a dilution by degrees until all of a sudden, even fans of the show, and I am a fan of College Game Day and I still rate it over big noon, it's not as good. And I think what Iger was speaking to, you could read into The Woke, and I'm sure that's part of it. But Disney movies are failing at the box office not just because they have diverse cast. It's because the movie's hard as great. You could maybe read into it and say, Well, that's also part of, subtly, what's happening with some of these reviews? No, I'm exhausted by watching some of these formulaic movies that are just very purple and just harsh on the eyes and don't have the great stories anymore. He calls them creatives. They're Imaginearies.

Elemental is good. I won't let you bad.

Mouth, Elemental. No, look, it's not all bad.

Is that the little blobs with feelings?

Yeah. It was so cute.

It's not all bad. It's not all diluted. You can have outliers here or there. But just generally, you have focus groups tell you what works and things become more important than telling the story. I think you could apply that actually to College Game Day with their storytelling. It's not just talents that are gone. Even though has a lot of say in the production of these things, producers are getting scaled back. The thing that helps make the thing has been transitioned out of the company in many respects, and different things are being prioritized.

To your point, I think this is the natural evolution of this College game day. Just like, hip hop turned 50 this year. Now for the first time in history, we got 50-year-old rappers, excuse me. We got older rappers that are insecure about steel rappers, don't want to do it. That's what I think the audience of College Game Day is. They like the baseball guy. They like Stu, Gots and Greg, Cody talking about they don't like the end-season tournament for some if and reason. It's not for you. There I say it's for the children who watch TV and say, Oh, a cool court. I want to play on the cool court. I want to be that. I think that the natural progression of College Game Day, they don't have the same stranglehold over America just simply because evolution, period. Nothing, Pat McAfee or nothing like that. It's just times change, bro.

I still love College Game Day. I still watch College Game Day. I think the thing with me, and I definitely identify with more, I feel like I'm a 50-year-old man sometimes, but.

Like- We're both 50-year-old men and Boulder, Lucy. Yeah, we're best friends. I found that out on Spotify wrap this year.

But.

I.

Don't feel like I watched College Game Day and I really learn anything anymore. And that's what I used to love about it. I would learn about these niche stories. What's going on with Virginia Tech football? I want to know. And it's become so much of a production, so much that I feel like the knowledge between why I love College Game Day, which is I want to just hear people really knowledgeable about the sport, talking about the sport, is not there as much anymore.

I feel like Game Day is a pollack away. Just bring back Kevin Pollack.

The actor?

David.

Pollack. David Pollack. Kevin Pollack would be good, too.

What.

About Jackson? He does a lot of voices.

Jackson. Kevin Pollack. That would be a funny edition.

Jackson.

Would be great. That is a five dollar fine for you, Chris, on the name- They're a pollack away. It's also, JuJu, a $5 fine for you for clearing your throat into the microphone. Also, people didn't notice. Lucy, God bless you, with a gargantuan sneeze into her elbow during that segment as well.

I didn't hear it. I sneeze like a cat, so you can't really hear it.

Put it on the pole. Does Lucy sneeze like a cat? I want to get back to what Jessica was saying, though, about what happened with Desmond Howard, because a lot of people said it was odd. But Desmond Howard, as a Michigan man and someone who's feeling persecuted like a lot of Michigan men are, took a journalist teammate of his and on air told him to get in the crowd so that he could feel whatever it is that he need to feel around his reporting. That is Desmond Howard being a good Michigan teammate. That is not Desmond Howard being a good colleague at the time for Pete Thammel like that. He is supporting himself and the Michigan voice and being someone on behalf of Michigan on the air. But you say it's odd. Nope, an athlete is going to tell a journalist to go out there and face the music in defense of his identity and his school.

I mean, it's just an example of how it's not that serious, guys. Let's all just take a deep breath. I don't know if he was joking. I don't know if they're buddies and joked about it afterwards. I don't know any of that. But it's just like, if there are people actually giving this journalist death threats for just talking about a sign stealing scandal with a guy who like to refurbish vacuum cleaners, we all need to just take a step back and relax because holy shit. I love college football phandom, but sometimes we are just a little too in.

The weeds. You cannot watch Michigan, Ohio State, and say to me with a straight face, It's not that serious. Are you crazy?