HOUR 1 | The winner of Utah-Texas Tech deserves to be a Top 10 team next week | ESPN’s SP+ metric…
Hey, this is JJ and Alexen. As you wrap up your day, it’s time to get your fix of the teams you live for and the sports you love. This is JJ and Alex, presented by G2G Bars on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. [Music] Found the headset. Good. Now we can do a radio show. Now we can do it. Okay. Now I’m ready. Always prepared. the headsets on and the radio show’s ready to go. Happy Tuesday everybody. JJ and Alex 975 EKSL Sports Zone. Man, we got uh it’s September 16th and that means we are a few weeks away from things getting real here at Broadcast House. And what that means is as the home of the hockey club is the home or well, excuse me, is the home of the Utah Mammoth. Am I saying that right? The Utah Mammoth. Can we get a pronunciation guide for the new team? And can I have a used in a sentence, please? Uh, the pretty sure checks notes. It’s called Mammoth. Okay. Mammoth. The Utah Jazz, of course, also in that mix. Yeah, the college football scene is going to get just even more intense. We are going to be absolutely full tilt here at the station. We’re excited about every second. Baseball postseason. Oh, okay. I’ve been trying to keep myself. You don’t want to bring it up, do you? You don’t want to jinx them. The Mariners are on a nineame win streak. Yeah, there. I said it. They are currently leading the West. Well, stop. Even if they do, they did such these last 10 or 12 games. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Don’t give me hope. I baited you into it. Cal Raleigh 55 home runs this year. The best from a switch hitter in the history of the game. tied up with Mickey Man history. Yeah. Most by a catcher for sure. Tied Mickey Manel for the most by a switch hitter ever in a season. Wow. Crazy, right? So, there you go. We can uh we can we can call it a season, but they’ve had they were struggling. What am I doing? I’m the only Mariners fan in this entire area, I think. So, anyway, I’m just happy. I think the Mariners might make the playoffs. Like, it’s not a done deal at all, but here we are. I’m still I’m still pretty excited about it. You want to know their percentage their playoff percent chance of getting in? It’s 97.2%. Yeah, because they are not just having a good go here. They passed the the Astros, they’re actually in the AL West lead right now by half a game. And yeah, I think that the chances of them falling out of that that third and final uh wild card spot pretty low, but again, 3% is still part of the possibility there. Isn’t it crazy? They play 162 freaking games in baseball. It’s unnecessary. It’s absolutely unnecessary. They make a lot of money. They do. They do. All right. Hey, I’m glad we went off on that tangent. Go Mariners. Uh here’s what we’re going to do. Our show brought to you by G2G bars. All natural ingredients and no preservatives. Make the G2G bar the perfect protein bar. We got lots to jump into today. Top of the program. Let’s get right into it here. Let’s get the cut going as we always do and then we can officially start the show up. And let’s do it. It’s time for the biggest story of the day. This is what made the cut with JJ and Alex on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Trajan Wealth brings you this portion of the program. Tranwealth.com for all your trusted local needs and retirement. Trajanwealth.com. Uh okay, first things first. Uh just let you know Steve Bartle, our youth insider for kslports.com is going to join us coming up at the four o’clock hour. just had a chat with Steve. He has seen a different side of uh of Kyle Whittingham than we’ve uh than than we’ve seen over the past year. It’s a guy who’s pretty excited for as excited as Kyle Whittingham will allow himself to look during some of these postgame press conferences, he’s there right now, but they’ve got quite the test this week. They’ve got all sorts of things that they have to get through still to be able to get to that uh to that mountain, but at the or the top of the mountain. But if we’re talking about rankings right now, let’s talk about some college football playoff rankings. Now, Mitch Harper and I just finished uh or uh we’ve uh just finished planning out our Big 12 program for tonight on KSL News Radio. We call it First and 12. And some of the discussions that we had had to do a lot with some of these rankings that are across the board. I don’t know which one fits the narrative of what you want to actually go with here, JJ, but I thought it was crazy when they do these power rankings that you would have some of these teams in quote unquote power positions just because I I don’t know why you necessarily because when they have power rankings on CBS Sports, for example, it feels like, hey, these are the teams that are trending right now. Miami is number one on their list. I can’t argue with that. They’ve been impressive. I can’t argue with it. They’ve got the best. They’ve had the best schedule and the best performance with the schedule so far. I I don’t think they’ve had the best schedule overall. They’ve performed the best with the teams that have been in front of them. Even Ohio State, they had that win against Texas. Do you look at Texas now and say, “Man, what a juggernaut.” And you beat them 14 to7. No. Georgia’s three, LSU four, Oregon 5, Penn State 6, Illinois 7, Florida State 8, Texas A&M 9, Oklahoma is 10. You get outside of the top 10, the very first team that’s mentioned is the University of Utah at 11. Is that a slight against the Big 12 that you don’t have any teams being even sniffed or talked about until the number 11 spot where the University of Utah gets spoken of finally? Not yet. I don’t think yet. I think that there is yet to be a Big 12 team that has shown us anything that would warrant being ranked any higher than that. I think that Utah’s offense and defense combination has been pretty impressive. I know that uh that UCLA win looks a lot different now than it did when it happened. We’ve had to recalibrate what happened in that game. Does it take your opinion of what this team is to a lower spot because of what UCLA is now? because they dominated that they thoroughly dominated that team. But it also felt like UCLA getting killed that hardcore by Utah also put them down this path that they’re in now currently. You have to take that into consideration. It sent them down this path of of darkness. That what happened in game one lingered into game two and game three for UCLA and led to their coach getting fired. Sure. I can’t imagine UCLA with the talent they have on that team was that much worse than New Mexico. give New Mexico credit for going to the Rose Bowl and absolutely pummeling them. But back to Utah, Utah has shown on offense and defense that they’ve got a really well balanced team. U you have an offense that’s that’s averaging over 500 yards total offense per game. You have a defense that’s only allowing like an average of 200 and something yards per game. I mean, it’s just insane the am the numbers right now and the discrepancy in those numbers. And those are kind of numbers and when you’re top 20 in both offense and defense of the country, you can win big. Some teams will have a good offense but not a good defense and vice versa. Utah has a lot of balance right now which which leads to success. But Iowa State, I mean their best win is Kansas State. There’s just not a team in the Big 12 that has a signature win. Kansas State, by the way, is one and three. So that doesn’t look like a good win either. It’s not. And that’s a conference game. So they didn’t really have the opportunities to go out there and get those games. I mean, look at Miami. Miami had a chance to play Notre Dame and they just happened to play South Florida after South Florida took it to Boise State in Florida. So, the timing for Miami worked out there. Or maybe South Florida is really not as good as we thought they were because I don’t know that Florida’s that good. And I’m not sure what Boyise State is. But it doesn’t matter because they had big games on their schedule and they took advantage of them. And Notre Dame, you know, is Notre Dame. I mean, they were in the college, they were in the national championship game last year. So, you look at some of these teams and LSU has some nice wins, right? I guess Clemson and Florida, so it’s hard to evaluate them, but at least those are bigname big wins that get your attention. Some of these other teams like Illinois haven’t done anything yet. Penn State hasn’t done anything yet. Florida State got Alabama. I get it. I understand why they’re up there that high. Texas A&M just beat Notre Dame. I get it. Oklahoma has looked pretty good so far. this John Matier thing is working out really well for them and that’s where you get to Utah. Can I place Utah ahead of those 10 teams in front of them? Probably. I mean, at least a couple of them. Or is it or is it too early? Is Utah better than Illinois? I I want to say yes, but historically, but see, if you do the thing where you go, all right, so I don’t know yet. I’m just going to go off of past performances, which is actually a bad way to look at things. We’re not supposed to look at it that way, right? It’s about this season, but but every ranking that’s in that’s here in front of us, even Illinois’s ranking is based off a lot of what happened in 2024, 2025. They they were hot at the end of the year last year. They won a bowl game. Yes, of course. Penn State, too. Penn State’s got Drew Aller for the third or fourth year. I still don’t know if he’s any good. I’m serious. What has he done? Uh Kate Click, Oregon is Oregon, right? Oregon has athletes. Got to put him in the top five. I guess you know LSU beat Clemson and beat Florida. Do those wins really impress you at this point? Clemson and Florida both have two losses. Florida lost to South Florida. Clemson lost to Georgia Tech and Clemson almost lost to Troy. So while these teams have signature wins, I’m not sure how signature they really are. And then these teams that haven’t had an opportunity yet, we just don’t know yet. Like Utah, if Utah were to beat Texas Tech by two touchdowns, people across the country be like, “Whoa, put him at number six.” Yeah. Yeah. See, the opportunity is Saturday for Utah to prove that. This is a monster game, not just for Utah, not just for Texas Tech. This is a monster game for the Big 12 because whoever wins that game is going to vault themselves higher in the polls and will suddenly become the team to beat in the Big 12 this season because it’s not Arizona State anymore after that loss at Mississippi State. They’ve been knocked off their perch a little bit. It wasn’t even a Big 12 team that did it. If Utah can beat Texas Tech or if Texas Tech comes up to Ricele Stadium and beats Utah, what message will be sent across the country that Texas Tech can buy a Big 12 championship cuz they’re going to be the front runner moving forward? You come in and you beat this Utah team that’s racking up 500 yards of total offense and holding teams at 200 yards of total offense and you beat them in their building, a building changes dramatically. Yes, it does. So, is does a Big 12 team deserve to be in the Big 10 yet? Or the the top 10 yet? I don’t know yet. We don’t know. Is that a Freudian slip over there? Probably. Does he deserve Does he deserve to be in the Big 10? Deserve to be in the Big 10. Discuss. Let’s stir the pot here today. No. No, we don’t want to do that today. That’s not for today because Utah’s got a big opportunity on Saturday against Texas Tech. I I I love that this game is this week. I love that this is the conference opener because you look at the polls and outside of Iowa State, who are the top highest ranked teams in the Big 12 right now in the polls, it’s Utah and it’s and it’s and it’s Texas Tech. This gives us a this is a good opportunity for the Big 12 to show the country who they are and it’s an opportunity for one of those two teams to put themselves in that top 10 conversation. I wonder though. Yeah. And and and like from a perspective of somebody watching from the national pundits will look at this and it’s a bigger deal if Texas Tech beats Utah then Texas than Utah beating Texas Tech. Why is that? Because of where the game is being played and because of I think the way that people feel about Utah right now as a program. It was it took it took three weeks. It really it took even before the season started people were already back around to Utah again, right? Yeah. the damper hype started to build 100% and and and you’re also you just kind of also go back to what the team does, you know what I mean? Like what the coach does and what you’re seeing right now is what we’ve seen when Utah’s at their best when they have an offense that can score like that and rack up yards like that. They have big seasons. They have special seasons. Say what you will about Texas Tech and what they’re doing now and the money they’re spending and all that. Utah has a bigger football program presence than Texas Tech. Is that No question. So history, all of it. What has Texas Tech football ever done? A lot of great quarterbacks who’ve thrown for a lot of yards and it hasn’t amounted to anything in the postseason. Hasn’t amounted to anything that’s gotten close to a conference championship. None of those things, right? But you always know about those tech your Graham Heralds and your uh Patrick Mahomes. Yes. Was fun. It was. Wasn’t that fun? It was incredible to watch. Patrick Mahomes set a record for the most passing yards in a game, but it was it was a game where Patrick Mahomes also I think he had a losing season last year there, right? Yeah. And it was and it was the same game where Texas Tech also gave up 680 yards of passing to Baker Mayfield in the exact same game, right? Isn’t that like Yes. Remember those two facing off and they it was like 1,700 yards of offense or whatever. Anyway, bottom line is I think that Utah is more respected than Texas Tech is. Texas Tech is flashy right now because people are like, “Dude, you know how much money they spent on this roster?” It was brought up at Kyle Whittingham’s press conference. Hey Kyle, they’re at at Texas Tech, they’re spending $25 million on this roster. Yeah, that’s crazy. And and and then people want to know, do you think that’s wild? Or actually, are you spending that much too, Utah? Like they want to know how much you spending on this roster? How much is this being how much how close are you to being with the big dogs? And if Utah is able to get a win this weekend, you can stave off the people who go, “All right, Texas Tech is buying a championship.” But if Texas Tech wins this game, you’re right, they’re already going to be in that conversation of the new norm of the Big 12 or this team that could put themselves in the spot to be the team to beat for a long time in the Big 12. Whoever wins this game has that inside edge into the conference championship game. Uh there’s a possibility that now with the co with the college football playoff being a total disaster right now for I think the powers that be your Notre Dame’s Notre Dame getting in is a very very slim chance of getting into the College Ball playoff. It could happen. Winning the next 10 winning their next 10 games in a row is going to be a tough ask, but they’re already 24th right now in the country. JJ, if they rattle off 10 wins, they’d be right there at that top 10. You know how Texas Tech Texas&M is also in the playoff conversation, right? Then that might be enough to pull them in, but they don’t have a chance for a quality win moving forward outside of USC. It’s true. It’s true. But it is also a team that is already in the AP top 25 and I know that the voters never see that. The I know the college football playoff voters, they never see what the other rankings are. The committee doesn’t look at that. Yeah. And they certainly don’t look at Notre Dame and see them as a program that need to get a boost. My heavens, they won’t be able to turn it off. They won’t be able to stop talking about this 10 win in a row Notre Dame team coached by Marcus Freeman who’s led him to 10 straight wins and now the number eight team in the country. You know how these I know you know how these things go. So the thing that’s happening this weekend is, and this is why it’s tough, Texas Tech could lose this game. Utah could lose this game. And you actually want to see both of these teams claw their way back into the possibility of maybe being another team. The big 10 the Big 12 needs two teams at least in the College Ball playoff this year. It’s so annoying. And if Notre Dame’s out, that opportunity is there. That opportunity is there. Tain and USF have the real possibility of two American teams. Wouldn’t it just be the greatest thing ever if two American teams got in, but only one Big 10 or Big 12 team got in? Or how about two almost happened last year. How about two American teams getting in and only two SEC teams or three SEC teams right there? The Power Conference at the very top only gets three teams in compared to the American Conference. Two teams that they get in. These are the kind of things that are wild that are happening. Now, what rankings matter the most? The College Football Playoff rankings when they come out in week eight. The thing is is what do they base them off of? All the things that are already happening right now. Nobody is taking a fresh look at this thing. And I’ll bring up a little bit later one of uh Tim Connelly on ESPN, his SP plus poll that he put out today just based off of if you were to look only at this year. It’s a pretty wild list and we’ll bring it up a little bit later. We’ll take a break. We’ll come back. Uh we’ve got so much more to jump into today. So stay right here with us. 975V KSL Sports Zone. Go complete game coverage of the Cougars is right here on the KSL Sports Zone. The Cougars head east for a huge non-conference showdown against East Carolina. Your home for the best coverage of Cougar football is right here on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. You’re locked on to JJ and Alex presented by G2G Bars on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Welcome back everybody. JJ and Alex 975 EKSL Sport Zone. Thanks for being with us on the show today. It is a beautiful Tuesday here at Broadcast House. Hey, win ticket Wednesday. That’s tomorrow. All day long, every show all the way across the station. You can uh win tickets. The win ticket Wednesday this week is Wings and Wheels. A fourack of tickets to Wings and Wheels. That is uh Spanish Fork’s premier aviation and auto automotive event coming up September 27th at the Spanish Fork Airport. Don’t miss vintage war birds, classic cars, exotic sports vehicles, and thrilling aerial performances. Tomorrow, all day long, your win ticket Wednesday on the KSL Sports Zone is going to be a family fourpack of tickets to Wings and Wheels. There you go. Uh, okay. So, I brought up what I I brought this thing up and and I actually I’m already just I’m awaiting like the people going at me with like the homerism stuff, but but hear me out on this, okay? Bill Connley, who is basically the person who put together, he’s the mastermind behind the SP Plus rankings. Now, the SP Plus rankings are all advanced metrics, and they the way that they do this is they look at what a team has done, your wins and losses over the last two years, and and kind of where you’re at. There’s overall trends that are mixed with your current offensive, defensive ratings, things like that. Your your strength of schedule, strength of record, all the things, right? All of it comes into account and they put it all together and they come up with the SP plus rankings. Now, Bill Connley poked the freaking bear today when he put out, “Hey, by the way, here are your SP plus rankings.” If it was only based off of 2025’s performances, wins and losses of this year, offensive defensive ratings from this year, you know, two to four games into the season. I say two to four because either you’ve played two games or you played four at at the, you know, at the max, right? And so it’s a lot it’s not a lot of data to go off of except for wins and losses in, you know, three or four games or two to four games of of some uh efficiency ratings across your offensive, defensive and special teams, all of it comes into account. So, if you were to throw out just this year’s performances, not looking at strength of schedule like ahead or behind or even past performances from the past, your SPS rankings go like this. Okay, I’m going to go from 15 down to one. Number 15 is Mississippi State. Number 14 is Nebraska. Number 13 is Illinois. Now, Mississippi State, Nebraska, not in that conversation at all about like if they should be, you know, top 15 teams, yet here we are. Well, yeah, we’ll see how many of these teams that are in this top 15 are actually ranked, right? Several of them are not. Illinois is ranked, and they have them at 13, although that’s lower than what they have them in the AP poll. Florida State’s 12 on this SP Plus rankings. Oklahoma’s 11. TCU is 10. TCU is not ranked and they are number 10 on this list. Why? Because in the two games that they’ve played, although it’s just two games, they have one of the best offensive and defensive ratings and special teams ratings across the board. All right. Now, yeah, one of them was against a bad North Carolina team. The other was against a mid uh Abene Christian. Fine. Everybody so far has played a kind of a garbage schedule except for maybe a couple of different teams. Missouri nine, Utah eight. I’ll come back to Utah in just a second. Washington seven. Congrats, Jedfish. Also not ranked. Also not ranked. USC sixth, just barely ranked. 25th. Now, the thing about USC is 3 and 0. Absolutely demolishing their competition, by the way, scoring lots of points and being very stifling on defense. What else can you ask a team to do in the first three games, right? Yeah. against Missouri State, Georgia Southern, and Purdue. Hey, Purdue is a conference game. All right. You mean Big 10 foe Purdue? Doesn’t that sound stupid? That they only beat by 16 points. Okay, regardless, Indiana five, BYU is fourth. Unfortunately, also not ranked in the AP top 25. Number three, Penn State, number two, Oregon, number one, Texas. Tech. [Laughter] All right. Now, you notice there is no Texas on this list. No, there’s not. You notice there’s no Ohio State on this list. You notice there’s no Georgia on this list. No Tennessee. There’s no Miami. No Tennessee. No Alabama, the program. Do you notice? Now, you might have a problem with that because those are teams that are right now ranked in the top the top four teams in There’s LSU. I know. Except for their numbers don’t don’t perform well on the SP plus. Okay. LSU’s defense or sorry LSU’s offense problem after all is not good. No, it’s not. Uh scoring only 14 points against a mid Texas team. Ohio State now looks pretty weird, right? In that first game. Yeah. And then sort of struggling in the first half against Ohio, right? Are you hearing me? Now, I’m not making a case that this is a way more accurate deal. I don’t think BYU is the number four team in the country at all. I don’t think that I don’t think Texas Tech is the number one team. I do think Utah’s kind of the number eight team in the country. That feels a little bit more normal to me. They might be. I mean, they’ve moved up nine spots just in the last two weeks. TCU might be that good if they beat Missouri might be that good. If they beat Texas Tech, where’s Utah in the rankings next week? They’re top 10 for sure, right? Uh, we talked about it. They’re 16 now. Can they I think they’re probably going to make at least a climb to 12th. 10 11 12 around there. Yeah. And it’s about right. But here’s the thing about this and and and Bill Connelly said, “Is this the the college football world in which I want to live? I can’t say no.” That’s what he said in the tweet. The reason is because if you throw out what your idea of what the AP poll was at the beginning of the year and you just did rankings based off of wins and losses, how you’re performing on offense, how you’re performing on defense, how you’re performing on special teams, then what’s wrong with that versus the version of what we get of the AP poll, which is basically a popularity contest at the beginning of the year. Which one is more accurate? This one’s not that accurate, I don’t think, either. But I don’t think the AP poll is that accurate either. Like, what are we doing with 0 and2 Notre Dame at number 24 in the country? What are we doing with teams that you look at and you go, “Well, we’re going to give them a chance. We’re going to give them a chance. I know they’re I know they’re one and one, but I think they’re really good. So, I’m going to keep it at number 11.” You know what I mean? To the point of Notre Dame, who’s better, 0 and2 Notre Dame or 3 and 0 Indiana? Who would you take right now? That’s a and that’s a hard discussion to have because it feels like you’d go, “Oh, yeah. Indiana really hasn’t played anybody exactly and I don’t even know who Indiana’s team is.” Like last year you were you were naming off their you could at least name say that Ror was their quarterback. I don’t know who he is now, right? I don’t know. I like I don’t know anything about Indiana. You know why? I’ve trained my brain over the years of following college football to block out in teams like Indiana. Not on purpose, just because what was the point of getting to know the Indiana Hooers on the football field? Name great Indiana football alumni. I got Antoine Randle and that is it. There you go. I got nobody else. And that’s a strain to do that. And you got to be my age to remember that. Now, Texas Tech the number one team in the country? Absolutely not. However, if Texas Tech was in a college football playoff game, we don’t know. Would you count them out? is Tech is maybe Texas Tech is that good. If Texas Tech beats Utah this weekend, where should they be in the rankings? Also top 10. Because beating Utah at Rice Cycle Stadium means something a little bit different than beating Utah, I think, in Levik, right? 100%. Being on a national stage makes a huge difference, too. you know, the the the argument of, man, no one saw that game when they beat UCLA by a thousand when the game started at 9:00 p.m. Mountain time. That which means it started at 11:00 p.m. Eastern time. Nobody saw that game. Conversely, you’ll have this week where no one can avoid it. It’s the only game that people are looking at and going that one I’m circling on the on the menu this weekend. I guarantee a minimum a minimum of five million people will watch Utah Texas Tech on Saturday morning. And I hope it’s million and it might be it might be double that. And I hope it’s a game. I hope it is close. I hope it’s a lot of points. And why not? I I was telling Steve Bartle this earlier and I’ll bring it up with him when he comes in again. I go, I I want to see that 2022 USC Utah game that ends with just fire. And whoever has the ball last, a dramatic win, 40ome to 40ome, and just give me a gritty guy running across that across that goal line for a two-point conversion. Everybody remembers that game. And you know what? Utah had a really good defense that year. No one cared that game because it was it was two teams who put up 500 yards of offense and Dton Concincaid catching 240 yards through the air as a backup tight end that no one saw coming, right? I mean, that was and and camising at his absolute finest. Really, when you talk about the Packfield Championship games and that moment, those were the three biggest the three biggest moments in Cam Rising’s career. 100%. He became a legend because of that USC game. That USC game, blacked out, night game. That’s the only thing I’m going to miss about this Saturday being a morning game. However, the payoff is everyone will see you do this if you’re able to beat Texas Tech at 10:00 a.m. Mountain time because everyone out east is going to go, “Wow.” I’m usually used to watching Michigan and Ohio State or a Michigan uh versus Iowa type of game on a on a on a 10:00 a.m. kickoff on the on the East Coast. Iowa State played Iowa in week two on the big noon kickoff. What happened to Iowa State’s ranking? Where they at right now? Way up. They’re the highest ranked Big 12 team. That’s They’re at number 12. Yeah, because they got exposure. Do they deserve to be the 12th team in the country? I don’t know. They went to Arkansas State and only won by eight points. Why’d you even go to Arkansas State, by the way? Geez. Why did Wyoming go Why did Utah go to Larmy? I don’t know. Why is BYU going to East Carolina? You got to have higher You got to have higher self-esteem than that. Big 12. I know Tom Halmo’s like, I’m trying to respect some of these contracts we had. I know people are like, “We’re making it up for COVID. We’re going to respect that contract.” Don’t respect anything. You’re trying to win a dadgum national championship. All right. Alex Cury has no integrity. I know. What am I No, you have no integrity. What are we talking about? I’m trying to I’m trying to win a national championship if I’m a coach. I don’t go I don’t know. We We should honor that contract. Handshakes and promises be damned. No, I don’t care a damn cost. I don’t care. Yes, absolutely. I’m that guy. Literal cost because you’d have to pay the buyout sauce. I know. I don’t care. million bucks to Wyoming. Why not? You probably count on three. I know. That’s what I’m saying. Come on. That I don’t I really don’t care about Wyoming’s feelings. Thank you for doing this game, coach. You’re You’re welcome. Who cares about that? Oh, we just felt like it was really important to go out there to East Carolina. If BYU loses this freaking game at East Carolina, everyone’s going to go, “What the hell? Why’ they play this game?” And I’ll be like, I was yelling that from the beginning. Don’t go play these poverty places, okay? And I apologize, Wyoming, for calling you a poverty stadium. Hey, Kate Hower’s no joke. Kid can kid can sling it. Great directional Carolina school. Back to you. Just telling y’all. I’m like, “Hey, what state is East Carolina found?” And my kids were like, “A East Carolina. The state of East Carolina.” Like, what? No, there’s a North Carolina and there’s a South Carolina. Pick one because it’s in one of those. Anyway, I’m just saying I don’t have any integrity when it comes down to this that I don’t care about other people’s feelings when it comes to me trying to win a national championship. If I’m an athletic director or a head coach, I’d go to the athletic director and go, “What are you doing? I don’t want to go to Wyoming.” No. Go full Indiana play nobody. I want No, but it No. Play teams that are fun to play and put them at home. Look, you could say that if Wyoming came to Ricele Stadium, you’d still say, “Yeah, I play Wyoming.” No one’s going to remember that was that game in Laramie. No one’s going to say that in College Playoff Committee. Stupid. All right, for the sake of not trying to sound like Jake Scott. I uh I’m just complaining about everything. Sorry. Get off my lawn. Did that sound too much? Get off my lawn. All right. I hate both of you. All right. They’re not in the afternoons anymore. Oh, is that what happened? I just turned into old man. No, I’m going 2025. I don’t care about anybody else. Rest in peace to that guy. Oh, he’s no longer with us. That’s what I’ve heard. Can’t be. Right. Can’t be. All right, we’ll take a break. We’ll come back. We got more to go around the corner. When we return, I’ve got a uh I’ve got a would you rather around the corner you don’t want to miss. Oh, I’ve got a fun top 10 for you later. I’m trying to decide between a couple of different weird ones, but all right, we’ll take a break. More to go. 975V KSL Sports Zone. Listen everybody, real life hypotheticals to get your brain churning as JJ and Alex ask, would you rather? [Music] All right, everybody. Welcome back. JJ and Alex 975 EKSL Sport Zone. Alex Cury, Jeremiah Jensen. We appreciate you being on the program here with us. Uh I was we were just looking at these I was looking more kind of in depth at these S SP plus rankings and I had somebody hit me up on uh some somebody text me and they said those rankings are so those rankings are so just like you’re catering those to to a Big 12, you know, honk and a BYU honk. And I said, “Well, look, wouldn’t you make more money doing that to an SEC honk or a Big 10 honk?” That’s the thing is like being able What’s the incentive there? And I look, but why is the AP poll readers and Here’s my but here’s my question. Why is the AP poll better than that poll? What’s the reason? Think about why those teams are even in the top a at the AP poll. It’s just because of where they were put at the beginning of the season and because of garbage schedules that they played so far. Perception. So, what this is is, so look, I don’t love putting USC at number six in the country on a on a uh, you know, in a in a poll like this, but they’re 3 and 0 and their offensive and defensive and special teams numbers are better are the sixth best in the country. That’s it. Has nothing to do with whether or not I think they’re better than Clemson. Clemson, they’d probably beat USC. Ask yourself. I’m like, I actually have no idea. We were listening to that Dabos Sweeney uh press conference earlier and he goes and he did the whole sarcastic like look if if Clemson want you got you guys think that I should be out of here or something. I mean if Clemson wants me out of here I’ll go coach somewhere else. It was like geez settle down dude. Wow. And it was I don’t know if that he kind of pulled the I don’t know hm is that good to win eight out of 10 conference championships in the last 10 years. Hm. Is that good? I don’t know. You guys tell me. I’m not sure. He did that at the press conference and you’re like, “Settle down, dude.” He’s feeling the pressure. Well, win some damn games. That’s it. He’s feeling the pressure. You’re one and two. You lost three games last year and got in the College Ball Playoff. I’m sure that’s what you’re telling your buddies in the locker room. But you, they’re feeling the pressure. You’re absolutely right. Here’s the thing, though. It’s sexier to put up Alabama on the marquee and Clemson on the marquee and Ohio State on the marquee than it is to say Texas Tech, BYU, Iowa State, Utah. I get it. What did you say? You were like, “What what’s even going on in names?” I have no idea. They’re they’re reading all of Bill Conley’s articles. That’s why he’s wanting to put out pro Big 12, right? Sure. Sure. Lot of years in Manhattan. He has his actual SP plus ranking that doesn’t have this anywhere near it. It’s more along the lines of what you see on the AP poll. So, I get it. Ohio State not being in the top 15, that’s a kind of that’s a that’s a weird world to be in. Yeah. I mean, it’s obviously you would include some of those teams and Georgia obviously is another one, but it’s interesting to look at it from a completely impartial takeaway. Every um prejudice you might have about a team, right? and you just strip away just the numbers and it’s interesting what you come up with. Gives you some insight onto who’s really playing well right now. Okay, here’s my question. Would you rather be in a in the SEC and go and be one and two right now against a pretty tough out of conference schedule, but you haven’t started your SEC schedule or would you rather be 3-0 and in the Big 12? 3 and 0 in the Big 12 because you’re so far behind the eightball in the SEC. Not if you’re in the out of conference. Got two losses. Yeah, but confence at least two. You’re gonna take at least two and then no four loss teams getting in. Oh, hold my hold my my southern whiskey says Alabama. I I’ll see if I can get in with four losses. And by the way, make it a 16 team playoff. Then we’re going no five team no five loss teams ever gotten into the 16 team playoff. Like that’s where we’re going to be. Have you seen our schedule? No one has our strength to schedule. And when it’s a 32 team, they’ll be like, they’ll be the first six lost team into the uh No, no respect for our program. The first seven and six team to ever get in the College Ball playoffs. It’ll happen with a 16, don’t worry. Oh, but we don’t have to worry about that this year. They only have 12 and a four loss team is not getting in this year. So, I would rather be the three and 0 team. I would rather be Indiana right now than Clemson. I would rather be Indiana right now than Notre Dame. Hey, don’t look now. The Rams are 2 and 0. You know, the last time when you last time your guys started two and 0, by the way, Super Bowl championship year, 2021, don’t don’t give Napapolis any ideas. I’m just trying to keep I’m just trying to keep uh I’m trying to keep the the good uh the good karma train going for my Mariners. I bring up other people’s teams so that my teams do well later. Okay. Nothing. Don’t give me that hope. Hey, but but on the flip side, the Cardinals are also two and 0. Nobody believes that. Which one of these is not like the others? Yeah, the 2 and 0 Cardinals, I think, are a little bit different than the 2 and 0 Rams. 49ers are two and0 as well. Is the NFC West the best division in the NFL? Discuss. Hey JJ, you know who’s not 2 and 0? Uhoh. How dare you? Why would you do that? Don’t do it. There’s an asterisk on that win for the Colts, by the way. Uh, there is not. No one will ever BS rule, man. No one will ever BS call. Hey, look. BS. The horse. The horse gave you everything you need to know about what happened to that team. This is our Colts. This is our team. I sent you that gift and you know you love it. All right, Ryan. You can’t have that guy be your spokesman. Come on. He was He was the NFL fan of the year, by the way, last year. Oh my gosh. What’ you do for your team? Nothing. All right. put on a horse head and start start uh being the biggest honk for the Broncos. Start making terrible songs in my basement. Why not? I love how it was based off of a Christian rock song, too. Oh, I know. He’s I’m going to rip off this Christian rock band so that I can pimp my cults. All right. It worked. We’ll take the break. We’ll come back. We have more to go around the corner. Stay with us. Steve Bartle, our youth insider for kslports.com. going to join us right here.
Hour 1 of JJ & Alex with Jeremiah Jensen and Alex Kirry.
• CFB Power Rankings
• SP+ Rankings factoring 2025 performances
• Would You Rather?