UCLA's CFB Playoff Ranking: Controversy and Insights!

So I will read off people that the 12 college football playoff rankings that were announced on a Tuesday night, Miami's obviously first, they were number one in the nation. You have Georgia, Utah, Indiana, Indiana went to four. They're the reigning champ. They're seven and one. Then you have Alabama at five, Kentucky at six, Texas at seven, UCLA at eight. Now UCLA is ranked. I mean, they were ranked fifth, so they were in the top five and you got, they were unranked a couple of weeks ago. Right. BYU, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Ohio State. So that is the group of 12. John, your thoughts on that group of 12. So you don't believe that UCLA, everyone's up in arms about this SEC bias that has been going on because UCLA was fifth in the country. I mean, they deserve to be fifth in the country, and now they're eighth in the college football playoff rankings. You don't think that's crazy? No. No, because these other teams have been knee-deep in it from day one. People expected them to be here. They've played better opponents. They've lost more games because they've played better opponents. Let's see UCLA get to the point where they've gone through an entire season and they've stayed in the top 10. Then I will start to give them some respect. Until then, miss me with this UCLA talk, okay? Sometimes you go full UFC, okay? Not the fighting, the University of South Florida. And you win a bunch of games. And you end up in the top five. It happens. It happens all the time. Show me at the end of the season what it looks like. That's what I'm more concerned about. What they're doing is awesome. I take my hat off to them. But for people now trying to dismiss USC because UCLA is finally doing something, it's laughable to me. It's just utterly laughable to me. So I wanted to get to USC because USC is now ranked again. They are number 20. And the team, I thought they were in a team. Well, I'm talking about like people will have the college football playoff rankings. And it's the top 20 times like that. So they're outside of the club. But you're right. They are inside the top 20 in rankings. So you've been higher on USC than I think everybody that's come on this show. And listen, I will say this. Awesome win to beat Ohio State. It really was. It was an awesome win to beat Ohio State. They basically controlled that whole game on a rainy day on Halloween at the Coliseum. And obviously, Ohio State starting a freshman quarterback. That makes it a lot easier. But USC's offense was good and their defense was good. And they showed up for the first time ever, Lincoln Riley and Lincoln Riley with this prepared statement, dude, just OK, whatever. I'm not going to see what you're doing. See, here it is. Here it comes. Here it comes. What? You just don't like him. You guys don't, you just don't like him. And by the way, why would I have any reason to like what he's done at USC so far, John? Give me one good reason. I'm, listen to me. Because what you're doing is you are allowing your dislike for the man to overshadow the performance that he's giving you right now. They're 7-2, and they lost to an Oregon team that was playing a backup, and that sucks. OK, and they're going to have to beat Indiana and UCLA to even have a conversation at the college football playoff. You think they're going to beat Indiana. I don't think it's going to be that easy. Absolutely. Absolutely. Are they going to go? Do you think they're going to win out? What did I tell you when we had this conversation before? Because you were saying, oh, if he loses to both of them, he's fired. And I agreed to that. But now you beat one. And if you watch Indiana play the last three weeks, they haven't been good. They needed a 60-yard field goal just to get into overtime. And it's not like, oh, it was 35 to 35. It was like 16 to 16 with the 60-yarder. So I have not been impressed with what I've seen from Indiana. You win the games, you win the games. You can only beat the team in front of you. Indiana has done that. But if it doesn't look good, that goes down on the committee's list too. And so if USC can go in there and beat them after no one else has been able to figure out the puzzle, you've got to take your hat off to them because now you've got back-to-back top 10 wins. Yeah, if they win out, I think they deserve it. But do you believe in this team to compete for a national championship? Because I don't. No, no, no, no. That's a different conversation. That's a different conversation. I want Lincoln Riley to win these games so people can stop talking about firing him because what he's doing is not easy. USC was in the dumpster. It was literally in the dumpster. He came here. He raised the profile, get the number one recruiting class in the country. I don't know what that's worth in the days of NIL now because guys just pack their bags and leave. Right. But. It seems like some of those signings are now paying off. And if he can matriculate that into back-to-back wins against top 10 teams, and by the time you get to the end of the season, if UCLA remains without a defeat, they'll be a top five team too. And if you beat three top five teams in a single season, you're going to get in the CFP. What do you think they would be ranked if they did that? Like at the end of those, like, what do you think they would be? Would they be five? They'd be, they'd be five. It's insane. They were just unranked like last week. And there'll be five. It's just crazy how college football works now. Because everybody knew they always had the talent. They just never were able to put it together. They have a Heisman threatened quarterback and they have a well-known head coach and they got the brand name of USC. That's all you need. This is going to be so fun.