Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, y'. All. Dustin here and welcome to the first episode of the College Football Lifer podcast. Now, contrary to the way it may look, no, I'm not actually in a hostage situation.
[00:00:14] I've been my, like, makeshift office in my apartment, kind of a, like kitchen, dining room area thing in a very squeaky chair.
[00:00:25] And I apologize for the crazy viewing of this. It doesn't look very well. I have a bookshelf with nice college of wall programs and helmets and things. But, well, I've moved a bunch since the last time I had a YouTube channel and they all got damaged. The microphone got damaged. The. I have a, like, an act, like a podcasting microphone, a blue yeti, it got damaged.
[00:00:54] So I have to wait and buy those things. But wanted to start the podcast officially, formally, something I've been wanting to do for a while now. And I'll talk a little bit later about where I've been, what I've been up to, and what kind of made me want to eventually start this shindig, this little podcast thing that will be posted on YouTube until they delete it, which they inevitably will do because that's what they do best.
[00:01:22] But I wanted to start this really all fall, and then I kept having anxiety and being scared and thinking too much and making up excuses, which is something I'm very, very good at doing.
[00:01:36] And then I decided, hey, January 1st, best new year resolution. Let's start a new podcast.
[00:01:46] And then I got so sick. Sick. I really sick with whatever, like, virus.
[00:01:51] I didn't have the flu part, but I had a really bad upper respiratory virus. And I'm still fighting. It's January 20th and I'm still fighting this virus. So hopefully I'll cut out some of the coughing fits.
[00:02:04] But, yeah, I whooped my ass. So wanted to start at January 1st. I went to the Peach bowl to see Indiana beat the snot out of Oregon. I was going to start the podcast right after that. Talking about that was still sick.
[00:02:17] Here I am so day after the national championship. Finally started the podcast on January 20, 2026.
[00:02:25] So hopefully this is something that people find interesting.
[00:02:29] And yeah, hopefully I have a lot of fun doing it. So I love talking college football. It's pretty much all I think about other than, like, movies and music maybe. So, yeah, this is the intro to the podcast. So again, this is really rough. The great news is no one's going to watch this for, like, months, so it doesn't actually matter. By the time people start actually investing in the podcast, I will probably, hopefully have bought A new microphone to plug directly into my very nice DSLR camera that I will actually shoot the podcast with. So whatever. I also have my notes over here to my left. I, you, I. Let me show you this. You are, I don't know how to flip it currently on just a stack of books, so it's very feeble. I can't lean on the desk that I have. So I have my notes for the podcast pulled up here. If you see me looking off to the left, that's what is going on there.
[00:03:24] Very squeaky chair. I apologize. The AirPods did a little test run. The AirPods actually working out pretty good. So hopefully I can minimize the incredibly loud refrigerator that I have in this stupid apartment that's not too far away. Didn't think you could hear that too much. Hopefully you don't hear, you know, the airplane that flies near the airport that I live near. So, all that being said, let's get into the first episode of the podcast and of course, what else are we going to lead off?
[00:03:55] Except for the national championship that took place last night, Indiana is the national champions of college football.
[00:04:09] It is the most improbable, unbelievable run I've ever seen in the sport.
[00:04:17] I think it is the greatest turnaround, the greatest sports story, definitely in college football history.
[00:04:26] I would go so far as to say in American sports history, I'm not the most well versed in all the other American sports. This is my jam, college football.
[00:04:37] Maybe there's like the, you know, the 83 North Carolina State basketball team, something like that, that, that can speak to it. Apparently a team made it from, I don't know, some crappy league all the way up to the Premier League and won a couple of years ago in soccer. So I limited it to college football. But good Lord, man, I genuinely can't fathom how this has happened. Kurt Signetti has done the impossible and won a college football playoff national championship for the Bloomington Indiana Hoosiers.
[00:05:12] It's, it's unbelievable that there's, there's no comparison in any other way. It's the closest we will ever get to a real live version of Dynasty mode where you take like the worst team and build them up into a national championship. Yeah. Absolutely insane.
[00:05:29] They beat Miami last night 27 to 21 in a very hard hitting game. Both teams absolutely brought the wood.
[00:05:38] Some of the run, some of the collisions that were happening on that second level were crazy. I was watching it with my dad, my brother and my nephew and several times we all went, ooh. Oh. When there Were hits. I mean, there were definitely some, some big hits being made. The refs were letting some stuff go, which I think is good in a playoff environment.
[00:06:02] Not calling some stuff. I think they should have called and then calling some stuff. That is a little odd.
[00:06:11] There was a drive where Indiana was, I think it was their final touchdown drive where guy from Miami blatantly interfered with the pass. Nothing was called. Then he barely makes any contact and a flag was called.
[00:06:26] Very, very strange the way the Big 12, I believe they're Big 12 referees, decided to call the game story coming out of the game, obviously Fernando Mendoza's incredible touchdown run, the quarterback draw on that fourth down.
[00:06:45] But the call from Kurt Signetti to, to call the timeout and make that call. He originally lined up for a field goal, saw something in the defense, called a timeout. And then apparently Miami lined up in the exact same defensive formation coming back onto the field and they knew they had them. Incredibly ballsy. I was telling my dad they absolutely should have kicked the field goal and gone for the points. I was actually ranting about how, you know, the Lions and Eagles and other teams just don't settle for points anymore. They keep going for fourth downs and not getting it and that's what's costing them wins and games and championships. And then Signetti proved me wrong almost immediately. So incredibly gutsy performance. Incredibly gutsy call. It worked out so it was good.
[00:07:32] Thought it was a horrible play call. Personally, as someone who knows nothing about X's and O's halfback draw on what, 4th and 5 inside the 10?
[00:07:43] No way, man, that, that the only play I could think of that would have been a worst play call is some kind of pitch play from the shotgun or so horrible play call.
[00:07:54] But it worked out because Fernando Mendoza, as he has done countless times this year, one, he won the play.
[00:08:03] He was determined. He has a big frame, six foot five, stretched it out. He's strong and man, absolutely gutsy. He would have won the Heisman.
[00:08:16] That's actually his Heisman moment. Even though he'd already won the trophy a month ago, that was his Heisman moment. I mean, really, the. The touchdown pass at the Penn State game is what people are going to mostly remember from the regular season. But by God, that was his Vin Chung moment to win the championship ultimately. And then of course, the interception Carson back throws on his final play in college, his final play as a Miami Hurricane. Absolutely gut wrenching for Miami to get so close after being doubted so much coming into this game and coming into this playoff to make it all the way there. Despite the naysayers, despite Notre Dame opting out of the Pop Tarts bowl to make it all the way to the end and basically be one place short.
[00:09:05] Crazy. Who would have ever thought either of these teams would have been there? Miami playing for national championship in their hometown in their home stadium. Fernando Mendoza coming back to his hometown and playing Miami for Indiana in the national championship game. Absolutely preposterous. The amount of storylines going into and coming out of the football game are countless. And we'll talk, we'll touch on a few of those here.
[00:09:34] We also just saw a program win their first national championship for the first time in 29 years since the 1996 Florida Gators, first time national champion since then. Was starting to wonder if we'd ever see one again. I mean, I, I don't even really remember the 1996 Florida Gators.
[00:09:54] I was watching football that I was 7, so I mean I was, I undoubtedly saw them play football, but I don't remember them.
[00:10:02] So this is my really, my first, first time national champion. We did not have a single first time champ in the BCS or playoff era up until now, which is absolutely crazy when you think about it. We're supposed to be expanding the playoff, getting more teams opportunities, and this is the first new champ we've had in almost three decades.
[00:10:27] Insane. Looking at the stats really fast, you'll see I have them set up here in a lot of categories. It actually kind of looks like if you didn't watch the game, that Miami probably would have won, right? I mean they had more total yards, but it was pretty even, pretty even passing yards, pretty even rushing yards, pretty even, pretty even penalties. Although the penalty yardage is a little bit different. The takeaway ended up being huge. That was the, the game ceiling interception.
[00:10:57] And that does not include a block punt that was fallen on in the end zone for Indiana for a touchdown. And you throw in a miss field goal for Miami and I mean that's the game. That's the difference in the game right there. And then Indiana dominating time possession, 36 minutes to 23.
[00:11:14] We really got to beat into us during the Ole Miss Miami game how much Miami wanted to control the line of scrimmage, control the time of possession in that game, particularly because of the way Ole Miss operates their offense. But Miami not failing to do that in this game. As far as individual accolades, quarterback Fernando Mendoza 16 of 27, 186 yards in the rushing touchdown.
[00:11:40] Running back Kaylon Black 17 rushes for 79 yards. Roman Hemby 19 rushes for 60 yards wide receivers Omar Cooper Jr. 5 catches, 71 yards Charlie Becker, 4 catches for 65 yards, including two incredible catches on the sideline. Staying inbounds Defensive back Lewis Moore had seven tackles and a pass defense, pass deflection and linebacker Aiden Fisher four tackles and the team's only sack. As for Miami quarterback Carson Back, 19 of 32 to 232 yards, a touchdown and a pick. Mark Fletcher Jr. Absolutely hard runner.
[00:12:18] Kind of was the reason at times it felt like Miami was even in the game.
[00:12:22] Seventeen rushes, 112 yards, two touchdowns, eight receiving yards, wide receiver Malachi Toney, 10 receptions, 122 yards and a touchdown. On the defensive side, linebacker Mohamed Toure, 11 tackles and a pass defended Reuben Bane Jr. Eight tackles, sack, two and a half tackles for loss and Akeem Mezador, three three tackles and two sacks. Just some other stats coming out of this game According to ESPN Insights on Twitter, Indiana lost a fumble in the first quarter of the year against Old Dominion. They did not lose another fumble in its last 1,000 plus snaps. That streak is three games longer than any other team since at least 2004. Pick six previews on Twitter also pointed out that Mendoza became just the 10th quarterback to win a Heisman and a national championship in the same season, first since Joe Burrow at LSU in 2019.
[00:13:14] Incredibly, there was almost a 50 year gap between 1947 and 93, but we've had seven since then. According to Parker Thune of On3 and Rivals, IU becomes the first team in the Internet recruiting era to win a national championship with less than half their roster comprised of blue chip prospects, I. E. A gamble on a potentially elite player. Indiana's roster comprises 8% blue chippers. Just incredible stuff. I mean they're well, well, well below the history average of that. Another random thing from the championship game. Indiana's Jamari Sharp, who sealed the game with an interception, is the nephew of the Miami player that had the controversial pass interference call in the 2003 Fiesta bowl that cost the Canes a national championship.
[00:14:05] I mean, what are the odds of that? Just insane all the way around.
[00:14:09] This is the Big Ten's third straight national championship, all with different teams. The only other times I could even find this happening, including only the AP and coaches national championships which have been, you know, both of them have been recognized as national champions since the beginning of each of those polls, was the SEC twice from 2007 to 2010. That includes LSU, Florida, Alabama and Auburn. And also the SEC from 2019 and 2021. LSU, Alabama and Georgia the only times back to back champions from the same conference with two different teams.
[00:14:45] So you know, both teams have to be separate and in the same conference. Outside of the streaks I just mentioned, the only other times I could find it was TCU and Texas A and M in the Southwest 1938 and 39. Minnesota and Ohio State in 41 and 42 for the Big Ten. Alabama and Georgia in 79 and 80 from the SEC. Florida and LSU in the SEC in 06 and 07. Technically outside of that streak I mentioned earlier, that's it. It's incredibly rare is what I'm saying. And we are seeing the pendulum swinging all the way back to the Big Ten and they are now dominating the SEC.
[00:15:21] Whereas for 15 years or so it was the SEC dominating all of college football and including the Big Ten.
[00:15:28] According to David Hale on Twitter, Carson Beck only lost six games in his college career. Four of them ended with a Carson Beck thrown interception. I went back and looked, he was 37 and 6 as a starting quarterback. But the final offensive plays in those six losses were a touchdown against Bama in the 2023 SEC championship game, three point loss, an interception in the end zone against Bama last year and a seven point loss, a failed fourth down conversion last year against Ole Miss in an 18 point loss and here we go. An interception against Louisville this year in a three point loss, an interception in overtime against SMU this year in a six point loss and the interception last night to Indiana in a six point loss.
[00:16:09] Absolutely brutal for Carson Beck. And I think this is the best way I could possibly sum up this game and this moment in college football history. I mean it could not be more storybook than than this. Washington Huskies play by play man. Tony Castron had a tweet that I think sums this up perfectly. Quote a two star quarterback scrambling for potentially the national championship winning touchdown on fourth down in his hometown against his hometown team after winning the Heisman Trophy for the losing his program of all time while his mother with Ms. Screams for joy from her seat is possibly the limit of how good sports can get.
[00:16:49] Could not agree more.
[00:16:51] All those shots of his parents, you know usually they're gratuitous and I, I don't care for them that much.
[00:16:58] Something about this one was really sweet. The fact that she couldn't stand up and her husband Fernando's father was was sitting down with her, hugging her the whole time. Just really endearing.
[00:17:10] Really nice to see and, and really a sweet moment throughout the playoffs and specifically in this national championship game. And I'm really happy for that family.
[00:17:21] We'll talk about brother Alberto in an episode coming out later this week of the podcast, as he has announced his transfer to Georgia Tech, which is curious to say the least, but we'll talk about that later.
[00:17:36] So Indiana is the national champion in college football. They now hold actually the last perfect season in major college football and major college basketball. 50 years ago this season they went undefeated in college basketball and now they are 16 and oh, the first 160 FBS program since Yale back in the 1800s, if you even want to call that FBS. Back then, they did it in a pretty impressive way. I think they did it over about two months to go 16 and out. But with the way college football is now, you know, there were people who doubted we'd ever see a 160 team ever again.
[00:18:14] And yet here we are, you know, two years into an expanded playoff.
[00:18:20] Just unbelievable. Can't say enough good stuff about what Signetti and Indiana, Fernando Mendoza and d' Angelo Pons and all these players have done for that program, for that school.
[00:18:32] And yeah, Big Ten, three straight national champions with three different programs. It's only been done three times, including now.
[00:18:42] Just unbelievable stuff. I do want to take a moment to really think about the fact that Indiana, this story is the greatest in college football history and I don't even know really what could rival it as far as a team and a program turnarounds.
[00:19:02] I have some some notes here that I want to talk about to just put in perspective where they came from versus where they are and how quick that ascent has been. No FBS team had more losses than Indiana coming into this season, a spot that has now been taken by Northwestern 716 after a 76 season. So shout out to Illinois for having the loss or the win. That puts you a rival as the losing his program of all time. If you look at winning percentage, IU now only has the 12th worst in the nation and four of those schools started their football programs this century. So I don't even know if they can really count because every loss just is weighted so much for those programs right now. Since the start of the BCS era, 1998 to 2023, before hiring Signetti, it was 24 seasons. IU had three winning seasons.
[00:19:56] They went 111 and 196 over that span. Had three 10 loss seasons.
[00:20:03] Didn't beat Ohio State. Went 117 against Michigan and 2 and 21 against Penn State. They had three winning seasons in 24 years and had just as many 10 loss seasons.
[00:20:18] I mean, it's crazy. In that same span, Indiana lost to FCS Southern Illinois and to a group of five teams. Ball State three times, Bowling Green Central, sorry, Central Michigan, Navy twice and North Texas.
[00:20:32] They had not won a conference championship since 1967. They had not won a solo conference title since 1945.
[00:20:40] We had just beat Japan when they last won.
[00:20:45] The team was comprised of baby boomers before that term was even a thing.
[00:20:50] Ohio State now leads the series with Indiana. 80 wins, 13 losses and 5 ties. One of only a handful of series in the country with at least 80 victories by one team. Before 2025, Indiana had not beaten Ohio State since 1988, a streak of 32 straight games in 37 years. Now that does include a tie in 1990 and Ohio State's 2010 vacated victory.
[00:21:15] But still, I think the sentiment remains. 2025 was also the first time Indiana had ever won in Happy Valley. They are now 1 in 13 all time against Penn State in Penn State and their record against the lions is now 3, 25 all time.
[00:21:32] Indiana had never even had a 10 win season before Signetti took over. There used to be a joke about 9 win. Was it 9 Wendiana? Tell your kids about 9 Wendiana. Could they get to 9 wins now? They're the first 16 and O FBS team in modern college football history. Of course we're not including FCS teams in there. That's just FBS teams at Indiana. Signetti is now 272 with his only losses to teams that played for the national title last year. He's a 191 record against Big Ten teams including Ohio State in the Big Ten championship and Oregon in the College ball playoff. The Peach bowl this year. That matches Tom Allen's entire tenure at Indiana, who from 2017 to 2023. If you want to talk about their bowl futility, you look at this. They have now won six bowl games. They won three of them this year.
[00:22:21] I mean they doubled their bowl wins all time this season. You look at this right here. Had their first bowl win in the 1979 Holiday bowl against BYU. Which winning a Holiday bowl against BYU back then was not easy to do. Ask SMU.
[00:22:36] Their first bowl game wasn't until 1967 of the Rose Bowl. Then they won the 1988 Liberty Bowl. I don't know the actual year. This was the year of the season, not the year of the bowl game. The Liberty Bowl 3410 against South Carolina, lost the Peach bowl to Auburn and then rebounded in the 1991 Copper bowl, winning 24 to nothing against Baylor. And then you see all the red there. They lost, what, seven straight bowl games. I remember watching that Pinstripe bowl against Duke, the one that went to overtime, where Indiana kicked the ball over the goal line or the goal post rather, of that field goal. And it was ruled, you know, not good. And that's when I learned the rule about if it goes over the bar, it's not considered good.
[00:23:22] That's. That's how I learned. That was because of that game. Because neither Duke, I think Duke had not won a bowl game since 1960 and Indiana since 1991 when that game happened. Yet you started to wonder if Indiana was ever even going to win a bowl game again.
[00:23:36] Now look at it. Look at that graph again. They lost the College Football Playoff first round last year against Notre Dame, and then they won the Rose bowl against Alabama of all teams. Alabama, I mean, the capstone, that's what they call themselves of college football.
[00:23:52] Then they go to Atlanta. They win the Peach bowl against Oregon, a team that has been knocking at the doorstep of a national championship for 20 years now. This is after slaying the beast that is Ohio State in the Big Ten championship. And then they go to Miami and Fernando Mendoza's hometown and beat the hurricanes at home, 27 to 21. Though that fan base did not make it feel like home for Miami, from all reports, it looks like it was about, I don't know, 60, 40, 65, 35, maybe 70, 30 Indiana fans. From everything I'm seeing, I can tell you from being in Atlanta, it was 95. 5 Indiana versus Oregon fans. I've seen people say it was 80% Indiana fans, 20% Oregon. Not from where I sat. I sat above the Oregon section and all I saw was red.
[00:24:41] I bought my tickets through the University of Oregon. My entire section was in red shirts, crimson shirts. So it was a home game everywhere they went. From everything I've heard from Bama fans, the Rose bowl was practically 90, 95 Indiana fans as well. Though that one's a little harder to tell because they were the same colors. But Indiana was so incredibly excited, their fans this season.
[00:25:06] I can't imagine how much money they doled out to go to all these games. According to ESPN Insights on Twitter, Indiana has won as many games, not just bowl games, but also games against AP top 10 opponents this year as it did in the last 90 years.
[00:25:20] From 1936 to 2024, they were 6, 116 and 1 all time against the AP top 10 before this year went 60 in 2025. To let you know how far IU has come, here's a tweet I saw but didn't believe until I looked it up myself. Indiana once called a timeout to take a team photo in front of the scoreboard after it took a lead against Ohio State in the first quarter in 1976. Indiana scored in the first quarter to go up 7 to 6 on the Buckeyes. It was allegedly the first time in 25 years Indiana was ahead of Ohio State at any point in a football game. Head coach Lee Corso took a timeout and took a photo with the team in front of it. I cannot find that photo online, but various people have claimed to see it in books or in a bar or somewhere. Lee Corso has confirmed it did really happen and now they beat Ohio State on the road to a national championship and that win came in the state of Indiana. How cool is that? Indiana's Greatest Story in the History of College Football There is some rumblings that there may be a cheating scandal. I hope to God that is not true. I'm choosing not to believe it. I mean, I don't know anything, but I think this is such a great story for college football for what the expanded playoff is supposed to be. It's supposed to mean they're the number one seed, but it's supposed to give chance to programs that never had a chance before now. This isn't really a college football playoff expansion story. That would be more Miami. This is an nil story. But still it's a culmination there. The perfect example of where we are in college football right now with nil, with the extended playoff, with the money pouring in.
[00:27:07] Yeah, it's just a good story, you know, and they beat my alma mater on the way to do it. So I'm certainly not biased when I say that there is no story in the history of college football as far as a program driven story that even becomes close to rivaling what we've seen from Indiana this season. So Hoosier fans, I hope you're taking it all in. I hope you appreciate it. I hope you have that parade and you remember it forever. Because who knows when it's going to happen again, if it's going to happen again. Who knows what the future holds. So please drink it in, please accept it, please have fun, revel in it, buy the merch and yeah, congratulations to Indiana and all your fans.
[00:27:49] With the conclusion of the 2025 season comes the final AP poll of the year as well. I want to talk about that here and go through and and give you a little more in depth understanding of some of the history of the AP postseason poll, some streaks, how many times some of these teams have been ranked where they are.
[00:28:08] We definitely have some history being made in this poll. So let's get into it and and we'll start at the top with the national champion Indiana Hoosiers 16 0. This was only their third ever top five finish, their first ranked finish since 2020 and only the eighth time that Indiana has finished ranked in the AP poll at all.
[00:28:29] To do that and a national championship is pretty crazy.
[00:28:33] And number two is the 133 Miami Hurricanes. This is their 13th top five finish and their first since 2003.
[00:28:40] So a long break between their last top five finishing. Now number three is the 132 Ole Miss Rebels. This is their fifth top five finish, their first since 1962. This is also their third straight ranked finish.
[00:28:54] Number four is the Oregon Ducks 13 and two. This is their seventh finish in the top five, first since 2019 and their fifth straight season finishing ranked. And rounding up the top five is Ohio State at 12, 2 31st top five finish that ties Oklahoma for the most all time. It is their first since 2022 is also their 64th ranked season finish second all time and their 14th straight ranked finish, second longest in the country. And number six is the 122 Georgia Bulldogs. The SEC champions have their 29th top 10 finish tying with USC for the seventh most in the country.
[00:29:34] Also their ninth straight season finishing ranked third longest streak in the country.
[00:29:39] And number seven 122 Big 12 champ Texas Tech Red Raiders first 10 win season since 2008, their first college playoff appearance, first Big 12 championship and first top 10 AP finish ever. Obviously their highest ranked AP finish ever and their first time finishing the season ranked since 2009.
[00:30:00] Number eight is the Texas A&M Aggies at 11 and 2. This is their highest ranked finish since 2020. And this is their 14th time finishing in the top 10. Number nine Alabama at 11 and 4, 17th top 10 finish in the last 18 seasons. Unbelievable. I mean whenever you see stats like this it just what Nick Saban did there is unbelievable. It will never be replicated. 49th top 10 finish most all time, 62nd ranked finish third all time. And their 18th straight season finishing the season ranked. That is the longest streak in the country. And ran and Got the top 10 Notre Dame at 10 and 2 40th top 10 finish, fifth most in the country. This is their 60th time finishing ranked in the final AP poll. Only five programs have ever done that, including the Irish. Ninth straight season finishing ranked tied with Georgia for the third longest in the country. At number 11 is another religious school 12, 2, BYU. This is the 20th time they finished the season ranked. Their first time since 2021. Number 12 Texas. 10 and 3 52nd ranked finish seventh best all time. Six straight season doing that right behind them 10 and 3 is their arch rival Oklahoma Sooners. 60th ranked finish only five programs with at least 60 ranked finishes.
[00:31:18] Number 14 is Utah at 11 and 2, their 12th time finishing the season ranked number 15, 10 and 3 Vanderbilt. This is the first time that they have appeared in the final postseason AP poll since James Franklin in 2013 and it's their highest ranking since 1948. Fourth ever time finishing the season ranked only four times for Vandy. Behind them, number 16 is Virginia. I almost put ACC champs here until I retire. Remembered what happened. This is their first ranked finish since 2004 and their highest since 1995. This is the 10th time they finished ranked in the final AP poll. All things considered, incredible season for Virginia and I hope their fans are stoked even if it didn't finish the way they hoped it would have. Number 17. I went nine four. This is the 28th season finishing ranked number 18, 11. Three two lane the American championship, only second ranked finish this century and their ninth overall. Number 19, James Madison. How about that. 12 and two the Sunbelt champs. First time finishing the season ranked in the AP poll. The last two teams, James Madison and Tulane of course going to their first College Football Playoff. Number 20 is USC at 9 and 4 51st season finishing ranked 8th most all time. Right behind them, number 21 Michigan. 9 and 4 65th time finishing the season ranked most in the country.
[00:32:45] Number 22, Houston. 10 and 3. This is their first ranked finish since moving to the Big 12 and 16th overall. Number 23 Navy at 11 and 2. This is their highest ranked finish since 2019. 14th time overall. Number 24 North Texas at 12 2. First time that the Mean Green have ever been ranked in the postseason AP poll in school history.
[00:33:07] This is also their first 10 win season since 1977. So congrats to all the folks in Denton. And rounding out the list at number 25 is TCU at nine and four. This is the 22nd time they have finished the season ranked the next five up according to the next five highest vote getters. Illinois, Washington, SMU, Duke and Arizona. So those are technically your 26, 30 teams, if you care about that kind of a thing. And as far as the conferences go, the SEC finishes with the most teams ranked in the country at seven, followed by the Big Ten with six, the Big 12 with five, the American with three, the ACC with only two teams, Miami and Virginia ranked. The Sun Belt had James Madison and Notre Dame from the independents.
[00:33:51] Now, because I got sick and missed the FCS National Championship game, which was thrilling and I hope you watched it. If not, please go watch some of the highlights from that game and shout out to all the folks in Nashville for apparently turning in an incredible game. I do want to talk about the final FCS stats poll of 2025 and kind of close out the FCS season as well. So we will start with our new national champions, the Montana State Bobcats.
[00:34:17] Montana State finished 14 2, first national championship since 1984. It's their sixth top five finish, fifth straight season ranked 17th ranked finish fourth best in the country. Behind them, the unlikely heroes of the season. Number two Illinois State Redbirds at 12 and five. This was their fourth top five finish, their first time in the top five at the end of the season in a decade since 2015.
[00:34:45] Number three Montana 13 and two. This is their ninth top five finish, fifth straight season finishing ranked, tying with the rival Bobcats. Actually 23rd ranked finish more than any other program in the country. We actually have a tie at number four North Dakota State at 12 1. This is their 16th top five finish. I mean they're putting up Nick Saban, Alabama numbers here, fifth season in a row finishing in the top five and incredibly enough their 16th consecutive top ten finish as well.
[00:35:16] 19th ranked finish all time, second most in the country.
[00:35:20] Tying with them is 12 3. Villanova. This is their fourth top five finish, first since 2010 and their third straight season. Finishing ranked at number six is Tarleton State 12 2. This is their first ever top ten finish and they have finished ranked in the only two seasons as full FCS members the last two seasons. So incredibly good move to move up to the FCS for Tarleton State. Number 7 Stephen F. Austin at 11 and 3. This is their third top 10 finish, first since 2010.
[00:35:50] Number 8 UC Davis 9 and 4, third top 10 finish, third straight ranked finish.
[00:35:56] Actually just watched Lady Bird the other day.
[00:35:58] It's where she got accepted to towards the end of the film.
[00:36:01] Anyway, number 9 South Dakota 10 5, third top 10 finish all the last three seasons. So I mean they're in elite company there. Number 10 Lehigh 12 1. This is their fifth top 10 finish for first since 2011.
[00:36:17] Number 11 Rhode island at 11 and 3. A lot of lemons. Fourth ranked finish in school history. Number 12 Abilene Christian at 9 and 5. This is their second season ever finishing in the final FCS ranked poll following last year.
[00:36:32] Number 13 South Dakota State 9 and 5. This is their 17th ranked finish. Broke a five year streak of top five finishes and nine year streak of top ten finish finishes 17th ranked finish. That's fourth most in the country.
[00:36:47] Number 14. We always just stay in the Dakotas. It feels like North Dakota at 8 and 6.
[00:36:53] Such an odd looking record there. This is their sixth time finishing a season ranked. Number 15 is Yale at 9 and 3. This is their fifth ranked finish first since 2019.
[00:37:03] Number 16 Tennessee Tech at 11 and 2. This is their fourth ranked finish first since 2011.
[00:37:09] Number 17 is the Mercer Bears 9 and 3, fourth ranked finish all the last four seasons. Number 18 Youngstown State 8 and 5.
[00:37:17] This is their 11th season finishing ranked. Number 19 Southeastern Louisiana at 9 and 4. Seventh ranked finish first since 2022. Number 20 Harvard at 9 and 2. The eighth season they have finished ranked. Also the eighth season finishing ranked as number 21. South Carolina State Bulldogs at 10 and 3.
[00:37:38] Number 22 Monmouth 9 and 3. This is their third ranked finish all time, the first since the spring of 2021 that delayed 2020 season. And number 23 is New Hampshire at 8 and 5. This is their 16th ranked finish. Number 24 is Lamar at 8 and 5. This is the first time that they have ever finished a season in the final poll. This one being the STATS poll. So congrats to Lamar and their fans.
[00:38:03] Number 25 Southern Illinois 7 and 5.
[00:38:06] They round out the top 25 here with their 11th season finishing ranked. As far as conferences go, the Missouri Valley finishes with most with seven teams ranked followed by the Coastal at seven or sorry the Coastal at four. The Big sky and Southland have three apiece, the Ivy and UAC have two apiece.
[00:38:25] You have South Carolina State from the meac. The OVC Big south rep is is Tennessee Tech. You have Lehigh from the Patriot and Mercer from the socom.
[00:38:35] So that is where we're at right now with college football. There's definitely stuff that I'm going to talk about in the next episode. Something has to be done about the tampering that's going on in the college football, namely in the transfer portal in nil.
[00:38:47] We also recently had the 2026 College Football hall of Fame class announced. I want to go over that but since it's the first episode I want to have two things that I can go back to. So I want to talk about where I've been briefly, but also what I think college football is going to look like 10 years from now in 2035, 2036, and we'll start with that one. So I have a little bullet point list of some ways I can see college football going and I just want it on the record. And I figured the first episode is an easy way to go back and remember what I said. So first thing we're going to talk about here is the ncaa.
[00:39:28] The NCAA is pointless. They are useless. They are toothless, they are feckless. They have no.
[00:39:33] The game has outgrown the need for them. They don't need to be around as a governing body. I think they will get replaced. I do not think in 10 years we will have an NCAA, at least not at the highest level of college football.
[00:39:48] I wonder if the power four is going to just leave the NCAA all together and form their own governing body.
[00:39:55] Or if not, maybe the power four just create their own division. So you have division one. Is the power four teams, you know, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Notre Dame, probably in there in a conference. I do believe they join a conference within the next 10 years because I think they're going to be forced to do so because these teams are going to be splitting away and Notre Dame's not going to get left behind. So they will eventually have to join a conference.
[00:40:22] Sorry Irish fans, that's one prediction I will make here.
[00:40:26] I also think the NCAA either is going to be replaced entirely or you're going to have the power four, the Group of five, the fcs, Division two, what was a hiccup, Division two, Division three, probably changing the name of those things. So that is one prediction I have. I also think there will be a 2014 playoff. It's currently something that the Big Ten is pushing for hard.
[00:40:53] The SEC, Big Ten are controlling the College Football Playoff. That's just the way the system is set up for some reason. So they are controlling the College Football playoff. The Big Ten wants 24 teams. The SEC wants to expand to 16, the 20. The Big Ten wants 24 teams and wants the SEC and Big Ten to have, I believe, five or six apiece, so guaranteed spots. And the SEC doesn't really want that at all.
[00:41:19] So, you know, I do think it's going to win out because there's money to be made and I don't think the people in charge of college football or college athletics really Care about what is best for the athletes or the fans. They only care about money. It's the only thing they think about. It's the only thing they look at. More games equals more cash. So more games will happen.
[00:41:43] So I think we will have a 2014 playoff. There's also a chance that the playoff is literally just the SEC versus the Big Ten in the same way that you have an AFC and an NFC. So 10 years from now you could have, you know, an eight team SEC playoff at 18, Big Ten playoff and the winners play for the national championship. I can absolutely see that happening.
[00:42:07] The regular season would just be determining seating for those teams. And then once that is defined, there's no such thing as a conference champ. I mean you would have a conference champ at the end and they would end up playing the Big Ten.
[00:42:20] I do wish we had known a little bit ahead of time that the Pac12 was imploding because I think the 14 playoff would have worked perfectly if you would have just taken the ACC champ, the Big Ten champ, the Big 12 champ and the SEC champ and put them in the game. I, I absolutely think if you couldn't finish in the top two of your own conference, you shouldn't be playing for a national championship under the old rules of how things were. And I think that would have actually worked out beautifully. But you know, what are you gonna do?
[00:42:51] I think most big names in the ACC and a couple of the Big 12 will be poached to form these two super leagues, these two oversized, over expanded SEC and Big 10 conferences, which again, not promoting. I'm not endorsing this is me predicting how things are going to go. I hope I'm wrong, but I definitely think Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, Miami, Duke, Georgia Tech, maybe NC State, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Louisville, we'll see.
[00:43:21] And a few of the Big 12 teams, maybe like a Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Texas Tech might make the cut.
[00:43:27] We'll see. Academics apparently matters in this. For some reason I've never understood, understood that this is an athletic conference. What does academics have to do with it? Whatever. You can make academic conferences if you want. That's what the Ivy League actually is. So whatever.
[00:43:44] Notre Damage been forced to join a conference in order to get into the playoff.
[00:43:48] And I think regardless of how much hate he got for it, I think Joel Klatt is right. I do.
[00:43:53] Not that I think it should happen, but I do think the group of five will eventually have their own playoff. Mainly because I think there'll be their own division at some point. So same way The FCs split in 1978 from the FBS. We had one A and one double A and then we had a one AA playoff. They have their own governing body, their own stuff. They're at a 2014 playoff right now and it works well for them. I don't know how much. Well, it would work for the big league guys, but whatever.
[00:44:24] But I think that they will have. The group of five will have their own playoff in their own national championship and that would be exciting.
[00:44:31] As much as I don't like Joel Glatt's idea about is kind of exciting. The idea that Boise State in North Texas and Tulane and, you know, whoever else, San Diego State or Fresno State and Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, I don't know. I. Usf.
[00:44:49] Right. North Texas, I think. I think it would be fun.
[00:44:53] Would it get buried by the FBS playoffs as well as the NFL playoffs? Yes. Would it hurt the FCS playoffs? Yes. But again, no one really cares about any of those things. They only care about money. So it's probably going to end up happening.
[00:45:08] The biggest thing here at the end, I predict that there will be some kind of cba, some kind of collecting bar, collective bargaining agreements in college football, similar to the way the NFL and their players have one. I think that you're going to have to have certified agents. There are people now you can just say, I'm an agent and guess what? You are.
[00:45:29] So they are leading players astray. They are leading boosters and schools astray. And something has to be done. You can't just, you can't just go to have someone, random ass person do all of your finances.
[00:45:43] They probably should know what they're doing. They probably should have gone to school or know about money at all or have their own business. That's some kind of way to be accountable to actually some kind of lawsuit. Right. Or swindling you. Or they need to know what they're doing. And I think it protects the athletes as much as anything. I do think there will be a salary cap. I do think all of the teams will be allowed to spend the same amount.
[00:46:10] Maybe there's a floor. There definitely will probably be a ceiling. And if you can't afford that, then you're not part of the conferences anymore. So get your money up.
[00:46:21] Hopefully tampering will be cause for penalty.
[00:46:25] Maybe stripped wins, probably withheld money and future payouts to the schools themselves.
[00:46:31] More so than any kind of fine, although maybe fines would happen. Certainly no bowl ban or TV ban because I don't think there's going to be bowl games in 10 years. I just don't. At least not in the way we traditionally think about them now. So unfortunately, those are my predictions for college football in 20, 35, 36.
[00:46:49] I think it's a dark road. I think the ACC will split up here in five years and will be dissected and the Big 12 will be maybe hurt a little bit after that.
[00:47:01] They replace those teams with teams from the acc. Maybe a merger of sorts.
[00:47:05] And yeah, we just are on some kind of unstoppable hellscape of college football that is just the NFL, but a diet version.
[00:47:16] Not what I grew up watching, not what any of us grew up watching. But I think that is the reality because there's so much money involved.
[00:47:23] So that's my thoughts on it. You can always let me know somewhere if you disagree or what you think.
[00:47:29] And last but not least, I want to just kind of address where I've been.
[00:47:34] Won't take too long. I'll put this at the end in case you don't care. You can turn it off.
[00:47:39] But I did want this on the. On the first episode.
[00:47:43] So a little bit about my journey here.
[00:47:48] For those of you who didn't know, I I made my YouTube channel in November of 2015, College Football Library. And I learned all this shit as I went. I didn't know anything about making videos or camera equipment or how to edit or any of that.
[00:48:04] And through trial and trial and trial and trial and error and error and error and error, I cobbled together a nice little YouTube channel. Got up to right at about 9,000 subscribers. I think I was at 8,800.
[00:48:18] And then YouTube terminated my channel.
[00:48:21] Don't know why, didn't appeal it or anything. I didn't know you could do that. And I just went, oh, okay. So I started a new channel, College Ball lifer. This was December 1st of 2019, right before the pandemic.
[00:48:38] Perfect time.
[00:48:39] So started College Football Lifer.
[00:48:43] Worked on it. Never did it as much as I wanted to. Depression, money, living with my mom. Like a bunch of things not working in my favor. They're excuses at the end of the day, but they are reasons for not doing it.
[00:48:59] And YouTube was always my life. It's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a YouTuber. I wanted to make YouTube college football content in.
[00:49:10] What was it? Sometime in 2023, I guess July 23rd, I made a new channel called NFL Lifer.
[00:49:20] And I was going to do this, but for the NFL.
[00:49:25] I didn't ever. I never even uploaded A single video to that channel. But I made my logo, I edited, made it look like the NFL logo, but I put an extra L on it and I changed the stars and stuff, but it looked a lot like the NFL logo.
[00:49:44] And then I got hit with a takedown notice for the channel.
[00:49:48] I can't remember why. I've lost the email, which will come up here in a second.
[00:49:53] And I went, okay, well I must have somebody like the system must have thought I was trying to impersonate the NFL.
[00:50:03] So that's fair. My bad. I wasn't trying to do that. And you know what? I don't really care for the NFL as near nearly as much as I do college football.
[00:50:10] This was a way just to grow my reach and try to get me back into the NFL.
[00:50:15] I like the NFL, don't get me wrong. But it's never been my bread and butter the way college football has.
[00:50:21] My bad. Right? So I didn't challenge it.
[00:50:25] At some point I deleted all of my emails for that account.
[00:50:30] Don't know why, just cleaning up whatever. I, I remember doing it. Like I just remember being like doo doo doo doo, cleaning up. Deleting all of my emails.
[00:50:42] Cut to September 20th, 21st. My brother's birthday is 21st. I think it was right there was that weekend, 2024.
[00:50:54] I had made a movie review channel that I was uploading movie reviews to and it got flagged for a copyright, not strike a copyright.
[00:51:09] I can't remember now. Notice, right? Like hey, you can't.
[00:51:16] I think I used like part of the trailer of a movie.
[00:51:22] Well, while it was down I, because I took that part of the video out and challenged it and when I did that they went oh, you are banovating.
[00:51:42] We do. We, we banned you for this NFL channel and you're evading it by creating a brand new channel.
[00:51:52] So we are going to terminate your account now. My account was College Ball Lifer, the movie review channel. And then I had a gaming channel too, which no one ever saw. I like 140 videos on it and I had 12 subscribers. No one ever saw it.
[00:52:08] Those all three were tied to the same account.
[00:52:12] They banned my account, so not my channel.
[00:52:18] So all of a sudden everything was gone.
[00:52:20] Gaming videos, fine.
[00:52:24] Movie review channel, fine.
[00:52:27] But the football channel had five or six thousand subscribers.
[00:52:32] It was gone again.
[00:52:34] And I was devastated. I mean I was heartbroken, cried. I was so upset. It's all I've ever wanted to do.
[00:52:43] So I tried to find a way to get in touch with someone. But you can't get in touch with anyone, because this damn world sucks. The future sucks. And everything's automated, everything's AI.
[00:52:54] You can't get in touch with anyone. Team YouTube on Twitter was no help.
[00:53:00] What am I supposed to do?
[00:53:02] So I create a third channel.
[00:53:05] And in the process of creating that channel, I try to set up an AdSense account, which is how you get paid through Google and YouTube.
[00:53:15] And they flag it and they go, hey, man, you're banned.
[00:53:19] You can't do that.
[00:53:21] And so they delete that channel.
[00:53:26] So what's a boy to do? So what I ended up doing was sulking for a year and a half, 15 months, whatever it is, where I just was like, all right, well, that's dead. I guess that dream is dead.
[00:53:41] And it was sad. The 2024 season, I was not nearly as engaged because college football kind of hurt.
[00:53:47] Like. Like, if a girl breaks up with you and then you, like, see pictures of her or see her in public or something just hurts. It's like that.
[00:53:57] Like, all I want to do is YouTube.
[00:53:59] It was. It's how I saw the rest of my life.
[00:54:03] It was gone.
[00:54:05] And, yeah, it sucked. It sucked a lot.
[00:54:13] And so I licked my wounds. And then sometime last year, which is weird to say, about 20, 25, sometime last year, like a lightning bolt, the thought just came to me and was like, hey, why don't you just do a podcast?
[00:54:29] Do a podcast, and then you can put the clips on YouTube.
[00:54:33] And if that channel gets taken down, it doesn't matter, because you have the podcast. You just make a new channel, put new clips on that till it gets taken down eventually. I'm also going to do TikTok as well, because I love talking about college football. Yes, I want to make money at this. I want this to be a career. I'm not going to pretend that I don't.
[00:54:56] This is what I would like to do with my life. I would like to travel in the fall and talk about college football all year long and go to games in the fall and visit campuses and experience this incredible sport we have while we still have it, at least in the way we've always had it.
[00:55:11] I'm not going to apologize about that, but it sucks that I can't do that or haven't been able to do that.
[00:55:19] So I decided to start a podcast, and then I'm gonna cut these clips up and put them on YouTube and TikTok and drive people to my podcast.
[00:55:32] This is going to be the first video on that YouTube channel.
[00:55:36] So I actually started my podcast this is the last clip of my podcast for this opening episode. And I started my podcast. But I'll tell you this as well. I apologize for the, for the, the hostage video that I'm. I'm filming. My camera, not my camera. My microphone broke.
[00:55:55] I moved to Atlanta for a couple of months. When I moved back, I realized it didn't work when I was trying to get this set up. And I have a blue Yeti microphone that also didn't work. So I'm using AirPods for, for the first couple of episodes until I can get a brand new mic to plug into my DSLR and then do the. The traditional videos, if you remember that, if you were around back then. So yeah, that's where I've been. That's kind of my story.
[00:56:22] So I'm starting this. I wanted to start this during the season of various times, but got scared and anxious and then wanted to start it on New Year's Day or the day after New Year's Day to start talking about the. The. The first round of the playoffs or second round. That was the. Yeah, the Rose bowl and Orange bowl and all that. Want to talk about those? And got really sick. For the last couple weeks I've been really sick. Wanted to. Went to the Peach bowl against Indiana Oregon. Wanted to talk about that, but was sick at the game. Went through an entire bag of cough drops at the game.
[00:57:00] Hopefully I didn't spread it anywhere.
[00:57:04] And then one talk about it, but I was too sick. So this is it. The day after the national championship, January 20th. I'm back. So you can follow me on Twitter.
[00:57:14] I did make a Twitter account specifically for college football that I'll be posting on. I think it's CFB Lifer.
[00:57:23] It'll be linked down below.
[00:57:25] You can also follow me on Instagram under whatever the same name is for that college football.
[00:57:33] Twitter account will also be that Instagram account. And then my personal Instagram is. Yeah, that. Dustin. I don't post that much. I'm not interesting.
[00:57:43] But the main thing I want you to do is go and subscribe to the college Football Liver podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast, but specifically Spotify. I think that's the one advertisers end up looking at the most as far as numbers.
[00:57:57] There'll be a link to that down below in all of the videos.
[00:58:01] The end cap video for every single video is just gonna be driving to that. I hope you understand why.
[00:58:07] God only knows if this channel is gonna stick around for any amount of time.
[00:58:11] It may stick around for years. I have no idea. Until, you know, it's like, it's like evading taxes, right? You can evade taxes for a while, but the second the government decides to audit you, you are screwed.
[00:58:24] So I may have this channel for five years, may have it for a month, may get deleted after this video, I have no idea. But that's where I've been.
[00:58:34] So, yeah, I made this video on my own free will. Don't worry about this.
[00:58:39] This will go away at some point once I can't afford a microphone for the big camera and shoot videos the way I used to. Which again, is just gonna be the podcast. But yeah, that's the end of the first podcast of the College Football Lifer Podcast. I enjoy talking about this again. College football. I missed it.
[00:58:59] Hopefully you enjoyed this podcast or this video again. Please subscribe to the podcast. It means the world.
[00:59:08] And yeah, I've really missed you guys. And I will holler at y' all later. Hope you have a great week. We'll have an episode later on this week and then I think I'm going to try to do episodes every Friday until the start of the season to catch you up on the news in the college football world every week. So. And my thoughts on that. So, yeah, thank you so much for watching and for listening.
[00:59:30] I really enjoyed it. Hope you have enjoyed it as well. Thanks for listening this long and I'll see you in the next one. All right, Bye, guys.
