045: Coaches, Cash, and the College Football Playoffs

College football is a wild ride—powered by $100 million coaching contracts and NIL chaos. We break down the College Football Playoffs, how the system actually works, and why the expansion matters. Then we look ahead to the next decade of NCAA football, from NIL’s impact - to the sport’s biggest potential glow-ups and meltdowns. Whether you’re here for the contracts, the playoffs, or the future of the game, this episode is your playbook for understanding college football in 2025 and beyond.

Get in touch! 

ALMOST FANS INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/almostfanspodcast/  

MEET TERYN: https://www.instagram.com/teryn.laferney/  

MEET AMBRE: https://www.instagram.com/ambre.hobson/  

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: https://www.almostfanspodcast.com/

Get 20% off your first order of LSM supplements with code FANS20. https://lsm-chiro.myshopify.com/discount/fans20

Gear up with lululemon: https://tidd.ly/3Fi5KTj 

Let experts help you find your dream job with CareerLink AI. https://tidd.ly/4logDTo 

Chapters

• 04:44 - Teryn's Dating Life
• 07:42 - Wisconsin Badgers Season
• 09:18 - Coaches' Salaries
• 13:20 - LSU Political Drama
• 16:04 - The Coaching Carousel
• 18:37 - College Football Playoffs
• 23:01 - The Pop Tart Bowl 
• 34:13 - Football's Biggest Glow Up and Meltdown

Transcript

Teryn (00:00)
I personally think the way that the NCAA is in NIL and all that stuff, like we need to just get away from thinking that all schools are equal, right? Like we just need to have like the top three, the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, and then everybody else, right?

and, or we had a premier league episode, right? Like let's have some people get in and out, right? Like, yeah, yeah. Like you your league, you're real, you lose, you're relegated. You win, get to promote yourself to the next league. So.

Jake Fergus (00:23)
I love this. This is where I was going. Relegation.

Ambre (00:24)
Mmm. Yeah.

Whoa.

Jake Fergus (00:32)
I totally agree with that. think there should be 50 teams that are in tier one, 50 teams that are in tier two, and you have to play your way in to the next tier up to get into a national championship game. I totally agree. I think that's the way to do it

Teryn (00:41)
Yeah.

Welcome back to almost fans. right, friends, grab your foam fingers because today we're talking football and the wild world of money, playoffs and power plays that come with it. returning guest, Jake Fergus is back, which means things are about to get smart, spicy, and probably so sarcastic. You might remember Jake from our fantasy football deep dive, which

was wild. If you haven't listened to it, go back and give that one some time. And also our PGA episode this summer. But today we're heading into another little corner of the sports universe. As we know, Jake's got opinions on everything. And even when he's not totally sure what you're talking about, he'll definitely still make it sound convincing.

Kind of exactly what we aim to do with this podcast, which is why we love having Jake on. He brings that perfect mix of insight, humor, and wait, what did you just say? Moments that we love. So lace up folks, it's football time and welcome back Jake.

Jake Fergus (02:19)
what an epic intro. I am so excited to be back. I mean chat GPT was working overtime on that introduction. That was legendary, Teryn That was the best.

Ambre (02:25)
Overtime!

you

Teryn (02:31)
And Chad GPT could not do this without our insight on you.

Jake Fergus (02:35)
Dude, honestly, you need to give a class on prompts for chat GPT. That was insane. I've never been introduced better in my entire life.

Teryn (02:44)
That's so funny because you want to know what's even funnier about that is Ambre wrote that intro

Ambre (02:49)
Ha

Jake Fergus (02:49)
that's good. That's good. And I know she's an expert level chat GPT user.

Teryn (02:55)
Yeah, yeah, I did add my own

little like flair to it, but yeah, we're.

Jake Fergus (02:58)
That

was great. Teryn, before we get started, let's talk a little bit about how your dating life is going. Dry spell still?

Teryn (03:05)
It's still so, so nothing. It's still so very empty. know, I know. Let's find me someone to just snuggle on the couch with. can't do it alone. I have a fireplace in my new place.

Jake Fergus (03:09)
That's going to be really sad around the holidays.

I have two dogs that you could have at any time. They'll start with you.

Teryn (03:23)
dog too. don't need another one. Okay. Yeah, no, ⁓ I've been asking you to try and find me someone for a long time and you have been doing absolutely no work on that.

Jake Fergus (03:25)
No, we'll just trade. I'll take Renzo, you can have my two.

Ambre (03:34)
Yeah, Jake,

where are the recommendations? I've sent her two.

Jake Fergus (03:36)
Well, that's because everybody that

Everybody that I tell Teryn about and explain to her, they all seem very scared to meet her. Intimidating. Yeah, super intimidating. Well, Teryn's.

Ambre (03:43)
Wait, they're scared of her? Why?

Teryn (03:47)
⁓ that you tell people

about me?

Jake Fergus (03:49)
Yes, and then that's how it lets you say when I describe you the interest level drops. That's so weird. I don't really understand why.

Ambre (03:58)
Wait, okay, so how are you describing her? Pretend. Pretend. I'm an available male. Yep, yeah, go.

Teryn (03:59)
I'm confused, wait, I, what?

Jake Fergus (04:01)
Okay, you want me to run the 30 second pitch? All right,

Teryn (04:05)
Yeah, give

me give me the 30 second elevator fetch.

Jake Fergus (04:06)
so.

So if you make a joke and you make her laugh in a restaurant, you're gonna get kicked out because she laughs so hard and so loud. ⁓ No, because not when you're in a five star restaurant. My friends are fancy, they're of some class. I'm just kidding. No, yeah. And then I say, Teryn loves sports. She's really engaging. She also slit your throat in your sleep if you're mean to her or backstab her. And so then that...

Ambre (04:14)
Wow, that's endearing. That's not a limiter. ⁓

my gosh. Okay, move on to the next.

Jake Fergus (04:35)
Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot actually. It's more than a 30 second pitch, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to get through it all.

Ambre (04:39)
You're doing a terrible

job recruiting, by the way. Let's just start there.

Jake Fergus (04:43)
I

also don't have that many single eligible or attractive friends. Most of my friends are either balding or overweight yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, Ambre, your husband doesn't have any hair. So that's something you get used to for sure. It's different. So you're biased. You don't get to have an opinion on bald. All right, let's start college football.

Teryn (04:44)
Yeah.

Ambre (04:50)
What's wrong with bald?

Teryn (04:56)
different.

Yeah.

Ambre (04:59)
Yeah, okay. That's fair.

Teryn (05:01)
Yeah, that's okay. I, but no, I

mean, like, just have to clarify something quick. I would probably more likely get a little feisty about someone being mean to someone else. Less about me. If you're being mean to me, I'm just, you're like, you're not going to be around.

Jake Fergus (05:17)
Well, yeah, and around as in dead. You're gonna kill them, that person.

Teryn (05:21)
No, like

I don't need to kill you. I don't need to go to jail. I just need you not in my life. Like, bye bye.

Jake Fergus (05:26)
I'm just saying that I you

know when there people say there are skeletons in the closet you may actually have some skeletons in there

Teryn (05:33)
Well, hey, people will never know I'm too good. But thanks for that, Jake. I really appreciate it. Honestly, I feel like I should be offended, but I'm kind of not.

Jake Fergus (05:36)
Yeah, thanks.

Yeah

No, it's a compliment.

Ambre (05:44)
We're numb at this point, Teryn. We've dealt with so many Jake criticism. I just don't even feel it anymore.

Teryn (05:47)
You know

Yeah, well, Ambre, you don't get nearly as much

Jake Fergus (05:51)
That's why you don't invite your boss on these

Teryn (05:54)
Yeah, well, Ambre, you don't get nearly as much as I do.

Jake Fergus (05:54)
That's why you don't invite your boss on these podcasts.

Teryn (05:58)
You don't get nearly as much crap as I do.

Ambre (05:57)
That's true. That's

Jake Fergus (05:59)
Well, it's...

Ambre (06:01)
doesn't like me as much as he likes you.

Jake Fergus (06:01)
Ambre's got three

beautiful kids and a beautiful family and she's just moming it and Teryn you're just scary. I'm sorry.

Ambre (06:10)
What about her beautiful child and dog?

Jake Fergus (06:12)
Well, yeah, I'm still upset about the fact that we cut off Brooks's finger and didn't make him a superstar athlete. We still have to talk about that on the podcast.

Teryn (06:18)
I was just telling someone about that.

Yeah, I was just telling someone about that the other day how you give me so much crap for that. Like he could have been such an amazing athlete, but what if it would have hindered him?

Jake Fergus (06:27)
It wouldn't have, they would have made him custom six finger gloves in football. He could have snagged that ball out of the air just with one hand every catch.

Teryn (06:34)
Yeah, I guess he could have.

Ambre (06:35)
Okay, and just to break

Teryn (06:36)
So yeah, special.

Jake Fergus (06:38)
you don't take away genetic advancements, and you did. You did. You took that away from him.

Ambre (06:43)
You

Teryn (07:36)
do you feel about the Wisconsin Badgers and what's been going on with their season this year? Real good.

Jake Fergus (07:42)
I was promised on this podcast we were going to talk about college football playoff structure and NIL agreements and money and not talk about the Badgers.

Teryn (07:48)
Hmm. I guess you wouldn't know about that, huh?

know about college

Ambre (07:51)
Hold on, hold

Are you saying the Badgers are not going to be in the playoffs this year? Are you saying we don't have a chance?

Jake Fergus (07:52)
I wouldn't know that.

This has been the hardest year of fandom out of my entire life as a Badger football fan. We are really bad. We are three and six. won our first big 10 game and I think 16 games or like Washington in an absolute 13 to 10 thriller where our punter had the most passing yards in the game with 22.

Our starting quarterback went three for 12 with 12 yards of passing. So we're just in a really good spot as Badger fans ⁓ around the great state of Wisconsin.

Teryn (08:29)
Well,

honestly, Jake, I'm wondering, have you, has Wisconsin ever been to the playoffs?

Jake Fergus (08:34)
⁓ Our head coach went to the playoffs with his old team. It's about as close as we've gotten. No, he went with the Cincinnati Luke Fickle was the Cincinnati Bearcats coach. He took them to the playoffs. And then we got really excited about him coming here. And he has missed bowl games every year. So it's not good. It's really sad.

Ambre (08:38)
⁓

Teryn (08:38)
Yeah, Ohio State.

wow! ⁓

Ambre (08:53)
Okay, wait,

so that leads me into a question about coaches, coaches' salaries. So when it comes to college football, it seems like there's so many coaches, big names who get these decade long, or it feels like decade long contracts, a bunch of money, while NFL coaches don't seem to get the same sort of treatment. Why is that?

Jake Fergus (09:18)
Well, out of all of the universities in the country, almost in every state, the head football coach is the highest paid either government employee or employee at the university. it's just the way it is, mainly because of the fact that they are the highest revenue generating entity in the state or at the school. ⁓ And so that's the biggest reason that they're making so much money is the football program.

Ambre (09:32)
That's insane.

Yeah.

Jake Fergus (09:45)
Actually, my dad and I were just talking about this, about how pathetic the Badgers are. And we were discussing this exact topic and we were saying how outrageous that seems. The head of the entrepreneurial advancement program at the University of Wisconsin is making a hundred thousand dollars. And we're talking about a potential buyout for our head football coach of $20 million. And so just how backwards that actually is. But when you really think about it.

People and students and undergrads are choosing school and primarily they're choosing schools because of the athletic program most of the time. And so if, for example, the Badgers are really bad, the school attendance will drop. It happens in every program that the football team struggles, attendance drops, recruiting drops, everything struggles. The school itself struggles financially, getting kids to want to go there.

Ambre (10:16)
Mm.

Jake Fergus (10:39)
And so I do think like from a economic standpoint, it makes sense why the head coaches get paid so much. The way the contracts are now structured does not make sense. The fact that you can suck at your job and not win any games and the university dash state still owes you money for being so pathetically bad. That's the biggest issue with the contracts and college football down. Correct.

Ambre (10:51)
Hmm.

Teryn (11:00)
Because that's not what's happening in the NFL. NFL doesn't

have that like guaranteed money, even if you're terrible.

Ambre (11:05)
Mm.

Jake Fergus (11:06)
Well, if they do, it's certainly not $50 million.

Teryn (11:09)
Yeah, yeah, not quite as much.

Jake Fergus (11:11)
So yeah, that is the biggest challenge.

Ambre (11:13)
Is the effect the same with other sports or is it just football? Those schools that have really strong basketball programs, like Duke, I don't know much about their football team, but their basketball team is so successful for many years. So the same effect, Duke basketball team plummets and enrollment drops as well, or is this just a football thing we're talking about?

Teryn (11:25)
Kentucky

Jake Fergus (11:36)
No, it's the same. Like most schools, like Marquette doesn't have a football team, right? Duke really, they have a football team. Daniel Jones, who's an NFL quarterback, was the Duke quarterback. So like there are some players from those schools. North Carolina, historically a football school, Kentucky, or a basketball school. Yeah. Okay. Relax, Teryn The Patriots are still not going to Super Bowl. Kentucky's another good example of a historically,

Teryn (11:53)
Jake may shout.

Jake Fergus (12:02)
big basketball school, known as a football school, but the football and basketball programs from a revenue generating standpoint, usually in those schools that are more basketball heavy, still generate a lot of revenue from football. But for them, basketball is kind of their football program. They pay their basketball coaches a lot. A lot of those schools pay their basketball coaches more than their football coaches. So usually you can tell based on those contracts, which drives the student population from both an awareness

Ambre (12:25)
Yeah.

Teryn (12:27)
Yeah.

Jake Fergus (12:29)
and then ultimately deciding where they want to go standpoint.

Teryn (12:32)
Yeah. Okay. I do want to talk about this because I do find it so, so interesting. What, you know what just happened with LSU and Brian Kelly and the governor. So like explain that. Cause I know I know just enough about that to be dangerous, but like explain what happened there and like how that kind of played out and like, how is this just like turned into a, like a political soap opera in that state.

Jake Fergus (12:54)
Yeah, that's it's really interesting. So Scott Woodward, I believe is his name is the LSU athletic director. He was previously the athletic director at Texas A &M. And actually, right before he left Texas A &M to go to be the athletic director at LSU, he had hired a coach there on a 10 year contract. A year and a half later, that coach was let go. so he, Texas A &M had to pay $70 million.

in buyout money to that coach, 70, million to that coach. And then he went to LSU and said, you know what, we want to win championships. We're committed. LSU head coach is literally one of the number one positions in college football coaching. It's probably the number one university you would want to coach at, mainly because Louisiana only has one school. LSU is that school.

Ambre (13:21)
7 0 7 0.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jake Fergus (13:44)
Coach at and you get all their recruits you get the most money all the money in the state goes to that program ⁓ And so he hired Brian Kelly on a 10-year deal ⁓ And it didn't work out. It wasn't not a good fit He they then just recently fired him with a 50 million dollar buyout So that athletic director is solely responsible over a five-year period of having around a hundred and twenty million dollars in buyout money That's going to go to coaches. So the governor of LSU

Because it's a state run program came out and said, there is not a chance in heck that they are going to let him hire the next football coach because of the fact that he's like, would one, who would structure this contract like this? What an idiot. But also who's giving out ten year deals for this much money. And additionally, you already did it at your old school.

Ambre (14:24)
Yeah. Core judgment.

Mm-hmm.

Jake Fergus (14:37)
What confidence do we have that you can you have any intangibles of hiring a football coach? And so now they're in a huge lawsuit with Brian Kelly about how much money they're going to actually pay them because LSU doesn't have 50 million dollars just lying around to give to Brian Kelly. So now they've got to figure out how they're going to negotiate his buyout somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 million. And the taxpayers are not super stoked on that, especially because they're not winning. So.

Ambre (15:02)
Yeah.

Jake Fergus (15:04)
That is the short and sweet of it, there will not be any more contracts for the rest of college football coaching history. have a feeling where buyout money will be guaranteed at that level.

Ambre (15:14)
I mean, do you really think that or do you think that it just keeps spiraling, adding more zeros? where does it, it feels like a game of chicken, right? Like which school is going to offer? Well, you know, like they just offered, you know, who we perceive to be the best coach or one of the best coaches, this amount of money. So we've got to be able to offer the same or more if we want an equal coach. I mean, it just feels like a game of chicken. When does it end?

Teryn (15:17)
Yeah.

Jake Fergus (15:37)
It is definitely a chicken. I think we're going to start seeing coaches or universities hiring coaches to give them a chance to avoid risk, hiring them to shorter term contracts, hiring them for less money, giving them an opportunity to prove themselves. Cause right now the coaching carousel is just this best coach moves to the next university, gets fired, moves to the next university, gets fired, moves to the next university, gets fired. There's like 10 coaches out there right now, all who have winning profiles, winning resumes.

that are probably just going to hop to the next institution. Like Penn State coach, James Franklin probably will pop to LSU. I mean, that's just the way it's worked. But I think the universities are all banding together as well and just saying, we don't want to do this anymore. We don't want our taxpayers to have to pay for these coaches when they get bought out. And I just think from a general business sense, no contract should be incentivizing you to perform poorly. And that's exactly what's happening. Does Brian Kelly want to coach again?

Ambre (16:17)
Mm-hmm.

Teryn (16:18)
Yeah.

Ambre (16:29)
Yeah.

Jake Fergus (16:33)
Maybe not, but he has $50 million waiting for him, even after doing a crappy job. He just got early retirement five years early. And so like, there's no incentive to try. And so the contracts are bad.

Ambre (16:37)
Hmm.

You

Teryn (16:42)
Yeah.

Ambre (16:45)
Yeah.

Teryn (16:46)
Yeah. Speaking of Brian Kelly, did you know that he, he used to coach at Grand Valley? the whole Brian Kelly. Yeah. We have the Brian Kelly, indoor facility in like the nineties to early two thousands he did.

Ambre (16:46)
⁓ That's so interesting.

Jake Fergus (16:52)
I did know that.

Ambre (16:53)
No

way.

Jake Fergus (17:02)
Yeah, look at him now.

Ambre (17:03)
Mm.

Teryn (17:04)
Look at him now, it's just taking him places. mean, hey, maybe he'll give some of that 50 mil back to Grand Valley. If could use it.

Ambre (17:10)
Mwahaha!

Jake Fergus (17:10)
Yeah,

probably the last time it was successful.

Teryn (17:12)
That's so funny.

Ambre (18:12)
Jake,

Teryn (18:13)
So shifting over to playoffs, a little bit of like structure wise. I'm always a little bit confused about this. Obviously it changes a lot. It's kind of changed in the last couple of years, especially. ⁓ can anyone actually explain how it works without a flow chart?

do you think that there's any way for it to be like non subjective?

Jake Fergus (18:37)
Um, no, it is always going to be subjective, unfortunately. Um, but it's much better than it was prior to 2014. They had this really stupid thing called the BCS and it was called the bowl championship series. Essentially what it did was there was an algorithm trying to make it subjective to then put the two best teams to play against each other in the national championship. There was no playoffs. It was just at the end of the regular season.

some made up algorithm, ended up saying, these are the two best teams, they are going to compete for the national championship. After a long time of that, my almost entire life, ⁓ yep.

Ambre (19:16)
Wait, I have a question. Was

this actually an algorithm or was it some dudes in a room?

Jake Fergus (19:21)
It probably was some dudes in the room masked behind an algorithm. I don't know. But it was definitely quote unquote an algorithm that they said. There were some numbers involved. ⁓ And then during 2014 or leading into the 2014 season, everybody was like, okay, this isn't working anymore. There are teams that are getting left out that are undefeated, that won't get to play in national championships. Even if they win all their games, we need to go to more of a college basketball style playoff.

Ambre (19:25)
Okay, great. Okay, continue.

Teryn (19:27)
There were some numbers involved.

Jake Fergus (19:49)
where there is a bracket or there is more teams that are competing in some bracket style competition to determine who the national champion is going to be. So in 2014, it went to a four team bracket. Um, and then they ran into the same issues that they did in the BCS. They were leaving teams out that were also still undefeated and they're like, okay, now we have to continue to expand. So 10 years after they went to the four team bracket in 2024, they expanded to a 12 team bracket and

Ambre (20:04)
Mm.

Jake Fergus (20:16)
still ran into some issues. prior to that, or during the 2024 season, they essentially said all of the conference champions are gonna get automatic bids. So the top five, big power five schools are gonna get automatic bids and then we're gonna take the next seven teams that are ranked, ⁓ that are ranked highest and put them into the bracket essentially. And the issue is they had so many matchups where you got like an

Teryn (20:18)
Yeah.

Jake Fergus (20:44)
Ohio State playing a Georgia in the second round where it's, are really two of the best teams ended up playing each other early. And then the national championship wasn't truly the best two teams. And so now this year is the first year they've updated again, where it's the five teams that get buys in the college football playoff are the top five conference champions. Doesn't matter what conference just ranked in order. So like if Ohio State wins the big 10, they're number one, they get the first seed.

If Alabama wins the SEC and they're, let's say the third, the third ranked team, they would get the two seed because let's say Oregon's the two seed and they're also in the big or the, yeah, the two, the second ranked team in the country and they're in the big 10. So it would go, it would skip Oregon and it would go Alabama or sorry, it would go, ⁓ Ohio state one seed. It would go to Alabama because they won the SEC. it's ranked champions.

in order and then it's the next seven teams that have the highest ranking. So it's a little bit different this year. Yeah, and it does require a flow chart, honestly.

Teryn (21:42)
Cheers.

We will take one. Yeah.

Ambre (21:48)
Are there still bulls, right? How does that fit

Jake Fergus (21:50)
Yeah, they're

Ambre (21:51)
in?

Jake Fergus (21:51)
just money grabs.

Ambre (21:53)
Okay. Are any of the bowl games playoff games now?

Jake Fergus (21:57)
Yes, so.

Teryn (21:57)
They can still call them that, right? Yeah, they'll be like

the fiesta bowl or whatever.

Jake Fergus (22:01)
Yeah, so like the semi-finals, they'll have the Rose Bowl and they'll have the Orange Bowl and they still keep the names of the games inside the college football playoffs. But then you still get the Dukes Mayo Bowl between Wisconsin and South Houston State.

Ambre (22:06)
Okay.

I don't believe that's a thing.

Teryn (22:18)
Okay, but shout out to the Dukes

Mail Bowl. I love when they dump that mayo at someone.

Ambre (22:25)
Wait, what do they do?

Jake Fergus (22:26)
Teryn, you can explain that one and then I'll tell you about the Pop-Tart Bowl after that.

Teryn (22:30)
Well, we were we talked about this like early on in the podcast ⁓ about doing. Yes, talking about the pop chart. Well, ⁓ I don't know the specifics of it. Is there like a do they have like rules around it? I just know that they always dump it on someone.

Ambre (22:35)
We were gonna do a sports marketing episode, yeah.

Jake Fergus (22:47)
Yeah, they dumped the, sometimes it's on the coach, sometimes it's on the MVP. It's weird. Mail.

Teryn (22:51)
Okay, male,

Ambre (22:51)
Mayo.

Teryn (22:52)
Duke's male, the best male by the way. It's so good.

Ambre (22:53)
That's so gross. Honestly,

actually, it's like a hair mask. It's pretty hydrating. That might not be so bad.

Teryn (22:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Let's not get into that.

Ambre (23:05)
Okay. Well, wait, what's the Pop

Jake Fergus (23:02)
What? Why?

Ambre (23:06)
Tart Bowl?

Jake Fergus (23:07)
Pop-tart bowl so there's a they have a huge pop-tart and at halftime they bring out a little It's the guy dressed up in a huge pop-tart costume and they bring out a toaster at halftime and he jumps in the toaster and then little pop-tarts shoot out a toaster and That's a halftime show Yeah, the field they also did the field of pop-tart. So pretty sweet

Teryn (23:26)
Wasn't the field like a pop tart? Didn't the field look like a pop tart?

Ambre (23:32)
That's so

clever. Can I tell you, I have just a couple of life regrets and one of them is that I never worked as a mascot. It's still like dream job. The anonymity to just be a total fool, I more so than usual, a total fool and just run around and dance and like take pictures and just be stupid. I've always wanted to do that. I've always wanted to be a mascot in a uniform that wasn't sweated in by anybody else without

Jake Fergus (23:42)
Why?

Ambre (24:01)
having been dry cleaned caveat. Yeah, it is risky.

Teryn (24:01)
it's risky. Yeah.

Jake Fergus (24:03)
Yeah, you would

you are a clean freak you would freaking hate that thing

Ambre (24:07)
Mm-hmm.

So I just need like a brand new costume. I just want to be the first one in it. You know, I can fumigate it. I mean, yeah. Yeah, exactly. I just want to run around in like a group of like a bunch of people. I know, I watched Bucky and I'm like, man, that looks like so much fun. He's dancing, he's like being silly with the cheerleaders.

Teryn (24:08)
Yeah.

Jake Fergus (24:13)
This sounds like Halloween, Ambre.

Teryn (24:15)
Yeah, that's a good point, Jake. Just get in a costume for Halloween.

Jake Fergus (24:20)
Yeah.

Okay, so next Halloween, I'll

take your kids trick-or-treating and you can dress up and go dance and take pictures with people.

Ambre (24:36)
I feel like that's going to get me arrested. It's not the same thing. Let's not do that. Okay, wait, but bringing it back to football. I might be on a predator's list with that scenario. Okay, so bringing it back to football. What are your predictions for this year? What teams do you have in view for top 12? Who do you think will eventually be?

Jake Fergus (24:40)
Meh.

Teryn (24:40)
the right circumstances, could cause you to join some lists.

Ambre (24:58)
Top four, we'll say.

Jake Fergus (25:00)
God, I mean, I really have stopped caring because of my depression for the Badgers. ⁓ Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, ⁓ Miami's in there, BYU, Texas Tech, Ole Miss. All of those schools are kind of the top ones right now. SEC, Big 10, not shocked.

Teryn (25:07)
Who is ranked right now? Ohio State, Alabama.

Ambre (25:15)
Yeah, Indiana, where'd they come from?

Teryn (25:15)
That's wild.

Yummy.

Ambre (25:22)
SEC coming in hard, huh?

Teryn (25:25)
football nation.

Jake Fergus (25:27)
Those two are

Ambre (25:27)
Yeah.

Jake Fergus (25:29)
the only conferences that really actually matter in football. So yeah, mean, anybody in the Big Ten and SEC that are in the top four in each conference have a great shot.

Ambre (25:33)
Yeah.

Teryn (25:42)
Mm-hmm.

Jake Fergus (25:42)
But yeah, it's really hard when your team is so bad that you can't even watch and you're a season ticket holder and you've been to one game because they're so pathetic.

Teryn (25:50)
Yeah, that's pretty sad.

Ambre (25:51)
That is sad.

Yeah.

Jake Fergus (25:53)
That's really sad.

Teryn (25:53)
Okay. If you were like NCAA commissioner, I don't know if that's what they're called, but you know, someone who does that type of job, how many teams would you want to make the playoffs like in your dream and where would you put the championship like Pasadena or Vegas? What would you do?

Jake Fergus (26:13)
I love Vegas, so I'd it there. the NCAA is such a disaster that that organization, just like FIFA, just like the Olympic Committee, just like all those organizations that have no actual oversight, they do whatever they want. ⁓ I mean, who knows? Realistically, the NCAA could be like, we'll go back to the BCS and the algorithm screw that. we have no idea what the NCAA is thinking.

Teryn (26:16)
You

It is.

Jake Fergus (26:40)
because they don't even know what they're thinking about. There's no planning. That organization is an absolute disaster dumpster fire. We should just burn it down and let the government run it and the government's not capable of running itself. So it's just, it's bad. It's really bad. College athletics isn't a bad spot. But I would personally be a fan of the 16 team playoff. I think if you had like a, you had like a true sweet 16 and you had a, yeah, you did the.

Teryn (26:48)
No.

Ambre (27:02)
Mmm.

Teryn (27:06)
Mm-hmm.

Jake Fergus (27:07)
Sweet 16 style like the college basketball and you have a Midwest, East, a West, a South bracket and you kind of did it that way. It could work. But who knows what the NCAA is going to do. They're, yeah, a disaster.

Teryn (27:15)
Sure.

I, one of the things that always think about, especially like with NFL or, NCAA football is like the amount of games. And I think that's always on a people's minds, right? It's like, it's such a demanding sport on your body. So people are always like, well, just add more games. Well, you're like, yeah, but these students and these athletes are like, whatever. That's like so much extra strain on their body. So like, how, how do you see that playing into that? Like if they ever wanted to expand it even more, would they have to get rid of a game during the season? think?

Jake Fergus (27:51)
Yeah, I mean, I don't think anybody is really gonna miss...

the Badgers playing Canisius College in the first game of the season. So like, yeah, they may have to get rid of the game. Exactly. I mean, those wins don't even count in the minds of the football committee, the college football selection committee. Like there's 13 of those people in a room and I can guarantee you there's not a single person that's bringing up the Appalachian state loss to Michigan in the conversation of deciding who makes the tournament. ⁓ So yeah, I think you could get.

Teryn (28:00)
All right. So just jump right into the hard ones. Yeah.

Ambre (28:09)
Mm.

Teryn (28:12)
Yeah.

Right. Wow, that was a real throwback.

⁓

Jake Fergus (28:25)
I know,

Appalachian State did win that game. So yeah, I don't think, I think you could get rid of a couple non-conference games. But I also think if you went to 16, it's the same amount of games that they currently have in the 12th team. You just don't allow people to get buys. So you don't have to add any more games. But if you went to 32, then you would definitely have to take out some non-conference games.

Teryn (28:28)
I know.

sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think I personally just think the way that the NCAA is in NIL and all that stuff, like we need to just get away from thinking that all schools are equal, right? Like we just need to have like the top three, the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, and then everybody else, right? Like, and then they can make their money in their own way and do their own things. But like, it just needs to, we just got to stop with the like.

pretending like everybody else and, and, or we had a premier league episode, right? Like let's have some people get in and out, right? Like, yeah, yeah. Like you win, you win your league, you're real, you know, you lose, you're relegated. You win, get to promote yourself to the next league. So.

Jake Fergus (29:20)
I love this. This is where I was going. Relegation.

Ambre (29:20)
Mmm. Yeah.

Whoa.

Jake Fergus (29:29)
I totally agree with that. think there should be 50 teams that are in tier one, 50 teams that are in tier two, and you have to play your way in to the next tier up to get into a national championship game. I totally agree. I think that's the way to do it

Teryn (29:38)
Yeah.

Jake Fergus (29:44)
because unfortunately for us, just like Premier League Soccer, it's about spending money now. Who has the most money, right? Like the Badger football program just said they're going to make it.

Teryn (29:50)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jake Fergus (29:54)
New investment into the program, whatever that means. It's not going to be great

Teryn (29:58)
Yeah. And you can't keep

up, right? Like you said, like the South Dakota state can't keep up with Alabama in like terms of the NIL deals and like what they can offer these students. So it's just not even fair. You know, it's not, they don't, they don't even want to play them, right? Like they want to play people that are like similar.

Jake Fergus (30:14)
Yeah. mean,

Michigan's paying their quarterback price under $10 million. $10 million. That's more than the NIL, the total NIL for most of those other schools. So like, yeah, it's, it's, this is professional sports with the college football wrapping on it, which is fine that we're going to do that, but we're never going to be back. We're never going back to the old way of when everybody could compete because it was about recruiting.

Teryn (30:26)
Yeah, for sure.

Ambre (30:27)
Amazing.

Teryn (30:33)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jake Fergus (30:41)
all of those things.

Teryn (30:41)
Yeah,

because it's not even fair anymore to even consider that that way.

Jake Fergus (30:47)
Yeah,

I mean, I went to the Badger basketball game on Friday night and it just shows how different the college landscape is in sports. Now I looked at the roster and I recognized and I'm a pretty diehard college basketball fan as well, but I recognize three names on the entire roster. I had no idea who the rest of these people were. And it's because of the transfer portal. It's because of the fact that people are just staying for a year and transferring out for more money.

Teryn (31:07)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ambre (31:07)
Hmm.

Jake Fergus (31:16)
That's happening everywhere in every sport. And so it's tough to recruit and actually develop players when everybody's chasing the dollar.

Ambre (31:59)
Jake, while you were at the men's basketball game, were you disappointed in the soft pretzel? I'm curious.

Jake Fergus (32:06)
my God. Ambre.

So Ambre believes that the soft pretzels at all the Badger sporting venues are different and that the field house, which is host volleyball has the best soft pretzel. That is it's, it's categorically false because of the fact that, ⁓ UW doesn't have different pretzels at different venues. They order from one supplier and if they order from multiple suppliers, that's weird. No, they're not. They're the same machine.

Ambre (32:18)
Superior, most absolutely superior.

you

They're just made differently. They're like, you

know what? These volleyball players are working so hard. are, mm-hmm, they are top quality athletes, deserve top quality soft pretzels. You can just taste the love and care that goes into the pretzels.

Teryn (32:34)
Maybe they have different volunteers that have a special touch?

Jake Fergus (32:38)
Yeah, they spray a little extra water on there while they steam the pretzels.

Teryn (32:42)
Steam them.

Jake Fergus (32:46)
The athletes aren't eating the pretzels.

Ambre (32:53)
at the Wisconsin Field House as compared to the Cole Center, Camp Randall. I can't speak yet to the ones at LeBond, which is women's hockey. We haven't had one there yet, but otherwise the field house is far superior.

Teryn (33:03)
But she will.

We need to get Ambre's ranking on the soft pretzels at all the Wisconsin sporting events.

Ambre (33:11)
On it.

Jake Fergus (33:12)
Yep, that can be your guys' next social media promo. And then everybody in the comments is

going to be like, these look like the same pretzels. And it's because they are. In fact, you know what? Blind tasting and blind ranking, you have to post that without any background, which pretzel looks the best.

Ambre (33:18)
No, no, no, totally different.

Teryn (33:28)
That would be so hard though because we won't be able to like have the experience and you can't bring them home and do it so.

Ambre (33:28)
I will... I know, I'll be warm. Yeah.

Jake Fergus (33:33)
But

it's not about the experience. It's literally about the fact that the pretzels are identical.

Ambre (33:38)
No, they're totally not. There's just something different. There's just more, more care and authenticity that goes into the pretzels at the volleyball field house.

Jake Fergus (33:47)
Sorry, so you're saying that the volunteers for the Stevens Point women's basketball team are better than the volunteers that are at the Camp Randall that are men's Stevens Point basketball team?

Ambre (34:01)
It was the ultimate frisbee club at the Fieldhouse last weekend. And yes, I do believe they're just more dedicated. So anyway, okay, back to back to football.

we have a couple of questions to wrap up today. Sort of zooming out questions. Fast forward 10 years. We're looking at the future of NCAA football.

What is between now and 10 years from now, what is NCAA football's biggest glow up and its biggest meltdown? If you could make some predictions.

Jake Fergus (34:34)
I'll start with the meltdown because there may not be any glow ups. The meltdown is the fact that the game is still extremely dangerous ⁓ and it will continue to be dangerous. It'll always be dangerous and we have enough of the younger generation I see, I think, recognizing the inherent danger of playing football. And so

Teryn (34:41)
pessimist.

Ambre (34:41)
Optimism.

Mm.

Jake Fergus (35:00)
people like you two are the biggest risk to football, not allowing your kids to play. ⁓ That's the biggest thing that I think is going to change ⁓ over the next 15 years is I think we grew up in a generation where CTE and concussions and the just knowledge base that we have around head injuries has expanded so much that we have more and more people that will not allow their children to play football. My wife's included in that. I don't think I'm gonna let my kids play football.

Ambre (35:06)
Yeah.

Jake Fergus (35:30)
every other sport I truly believe is outside of UFC maybe is safer, ⁓ in a lot of ways. And so I think that's the biggest fear that I have about football is that we just lose, enough kids playing and, or the best athletes playing. That's why football is the best sport is cause we have most of the best athletes in America gravitating right now towards that sport because it's the most popular in the U S most money. Yeah. ⁓ so.

Ambre (35:53)
Most money, yeah.

Jake Fergus (35:56)
That's probably the biggest fear I have, but the biggest glow up on the more positive note is that there is now a lot of money on the flip side in college football. And so there is the counteractive side of that where we will still have kids that want to play football because they can get more money in college and it can become part of their career path to make money in college if they are of that caliber to then

especially underprivileged kids that may not have another way to make money throughout school, like it'll give them a jumping off point to then go do whatever they want to do after college as well. And so I think that that's an inherent benefit of the NIL, being able to capitalize on your name and image likeness when you weren't before at a young age where you can really actually jumpstart your career. think that is a huge win for the continued advancement of the game itself.

Teryn (36:32)
Hmm.

Jake Fergus (36:49)
But from a game perspective and like any glow ups that are going to happen, I just don't know if there is any that are super recognizable outside of potentially relegation or completely new structure on how we determine who makes the playoffs, who's a national champion, conference realignment. All of those things are so up in the air. It's really hard to determine what's next and what could be exciting in the future. I don't think the gameplay is going to change any.

That makes sense.

Teryn (37:17)
Yeah. Well, Ambre and I, we personally believe that the ⁓ future of sports are pop star mascots. So who is your Taylor Swift for the Wisconsin Badgers? Who could that be?

Ambre (37:17)
Yeah, it does.

Jake Fergus (37:35)
⁓

boy. ⁓

Probably someone like a Lindsay Lohan or a Britney Spears where they're really hot in their prime and kind of falling off. Probably something like that.

Ambre (37:47)
You

That's so sad.

Teryn (37:51)
Lindsay Lohan.

Jake Fergus (37:53)
And

honestly, just not going to get better with age. So that's probably it.

Ambre (37:56)
Ha ha

Teryn (37:56)
⁓

Ambre (37:57)
ha!

Teryn (37:57)
they've hit their ceiling, their peak.

Jake Fergus (37:59)
Yeah, yeah, right when I was like in college high school, like hit the peak and then similar to my life trajectory just kind of.

Ambre (37:59)
Yeah.

Teryn (38:07)
Hey, that's very self-aware of you.

Jake Fergus (38:09)
Hahaha!

Ambre (38:09)
Yeah.

Jake, on this topic, on the same topic, we also believe, wondering if you agree that Taylor Swift is the best thing to ever happen to football. What's your take on that?

Jake Fergus (38:20)
I thought this was a college football show. ⁓

Ambre (38:21)
You

Teryn (38:23)
⁓

That's fair. Since we're on the topic.

Jake Fergus (38:25)
no, no,

no, I'm, I'm pretty convinced, and this is a pretty spicy take. ⁓ I'm pretty convinced Taylor got with Travis to infiltrate a male population that may or may not have really knew who she was, ⁓ so that she can run for president in 2028.

Ambre (38:46)
Wow, I did not see that coming.

Teryn (38:46)
Wow!

Jake Fergus (38:48)
Yep, Steve told ya, I've been pitching this for a while now.

Teryn (38:51)
Do you really, do you think?

Ambre (38:51)
Also, she'd win, hands down, right?

Jake Fergus (38:53)
Probably.

Teryn (38:53)
This is so funny. ⁓ I don't know about that. I don't think that the male population is like all of a sudden in love with Taylor Swift. That's where I think you're confused. I know you are.

Jake Fergus (39:02)
Well, I'm

certainly having Jason and Kelsey promoting you is helping the male population adopt her at some level. ⁓ but yeah, I do think that this is all just a big PR play for her to run for president.

Teryn (39:17)
Hey, I'm in.

Ambre (39:18)
thing is just a guy

and a gal who fell in love. What did she say when she got engaged? It was your gym teacher and your what was her? Yeah, English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married. She's a guy and a gal who fell in love Jake. There's no conspiracy here.

Teryn (39:25)
And you're like literature, philosophy teacher or whatever. Oh yeah. English teacher. Yeah.

Jake Fergus (39:35)
Yeah, I

think it's just a huge PR play.

Teryn (39:38)
You think they're going to get divorced or even make it to the altar?

Jake Fergus (39:40)
I mean, let's just say

I have the under on five years.

Ambre (39:42)
Awwww.

Jake Fergus (39:44)
Don't tell my wife that, she won't listen, so that's good.

Teryn (39:44)
I should be

so mad at you for that.

Ambre (39:48)
she would leave you so fast.

Jake Fergus (39:49)
Yes, she probably would.

Teryn (39:51)
Oh, so good. Well, Jake, this is always such a blast. And I knew you'd have some spicy takes as you always do. So we're just grateful that you always take your time out of your day to spend, spend it with us, teaching us a little bit more about whatever topic it is and or shaming me publicly. We love it. We love you for all of it.

Jake Fergus (40:10)
Yep, that's literally why I'm here.

Well, I love you guys. This has always been fun. I am happy to come on whenever you'll have me. This is my favorite hour of the every quarter when I get to come on once a quarter. I don't know why I'm not a reoccurring guest more frequently, but that's something we can talk about in private often.

Ambre (40:25)
You're tied for

tied for winning with Jake Simmons three appearances. What?

Jake Fergus (40:29)
Yeah, also sucks. I mean, so much better than Simmons.

Teryn (40:29)
Yeah, we love Jakes.

Wow,

the battle of the Jakes.

Ambre (40:37)
Okay.

Can I just say when my highlight from Jake Simmons was on his very first episode with us, it was hockey, go back and listen to it friends. And he told us about a cake that his mom makes. And we call it something different in our household, but this cake is named better than winning in

Jake Fergus (40:47)
Hockey Talk.

Ambre (41:02)
Game seven overtime of the Stanley Cup playoffs. That is the name of the cake. I thought I was going to lose it. I had to repeat it. Yeah, that's what we call it.

Jake Fergus (41:08)
What?

Teryn (41:09)
i.e. better than sex bars.

Jake Fergus (41:13)
That's really long name for a cake. ⁓

Ambre (41:16)
Yeah,

surely it has an acronym.

Jake Fergus (41:18)
And also like Jake has zero percent chance of ever taking part in the Stanley Cup game seven. So how would he know? How would he know?

Ambre (41:25)
I don't

know. You know what? Maybe he just...

Teryn (41:29)
I think

it's about like their team winning game seven of the Stanley Cup.

Jake Fergus (41:33)
Well, the

Minnesota Wilds aren't winning anything, so. He's gonna have to live a long time to see that.

Ambre (41:35)
You

That's fair. Yeah, that's fair. One day he'll know maybe. Anyway, thanks, Jake Fergus. You're the best.

Teryn (41:39)
my gosh.

Jake Fergus (41:44)
Yep, thank you guys. All right, love you guys too.

Teryn (41:45)
Love you,