Chris Fallica
Appearances
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
That's a different story, but I give you four best teams, uh, teams buys, but yeah, it will, it will look and we'll see what happens this weekend. I mean, people talked about wanting the extra games because they upsets are going to happen. You get more teams in, you don't know, but we can have first round upsets.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Well, all four of these teams that are hosting in the first round are north of a touchdown favorite. So we'll see if one of these teams can go on the road and pull an upset. If not, then we're kind of That doesn't mean that it will never happen, but it will just kind of give the people and say, hey, why are we putting like 12 teams in? We really don't need more than four or eight.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
I think it's SMU. Really? Yeah, I think what we saw from Penn State against Oregon, I think we saw the Oregon offense. Look, granted, that's Dylan Gabriel and that offense and Tez Johnson and those wide receivers, but they really – got little resistance from that Penn State defense in the Big Ten Championship game.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
And with Kevin Jennings and the Miami transfers that they have down there and Rhett Lashley has at SMU, I think they can do some similar type things. But it would not surprise me to see SMU hang around in this game. Now, look, they could go there. And their lack of beating anybody good throughout the year, their strength to schedule, it may wear its ugly head this coming weekend.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
But I think they have the pieces that exist the most to potentially pull an upset.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Ohio State. Really? Ohio State is still powering. In Texas, too. Ohio State and Texas are two of the best four teams in the country. I like that. That's what I was getting at with, with the seating. Like if you, if you say who are the best four teams in the country, I mean, some people might want to throw Notre Dame in there, but it's Ohio state, Texas, Oregon, and Georgia.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Those are the four best teams. And you got two of them that potentially would have to play four games in order to, to win the title. But yeah, if Texas or Ohio state won the national title, no one would be shocked at all.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
I can't either. I mean, you're asking SMU to beat To be Penn State, and then they would luck out. You would get Boise State in the next round, but then you'd potentially get Georgia, and then you're going to get either Ohio State, Texas, or Oregon. It's not going to happen. The way the teams are built are different. In college basketball, you have five players on the court at once. It's not...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Build continuity with upperclassmen and you're playing together for three, four years. That stuff matters. College football, you're not going to get that. You get 11 on 11, the two deeps. It's just college football is the most schedule-reliant sport that there is. And I know people hate it when I say it, but all schedules are not created equal. All conferences are not created equal.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
And the ringing indictment of that, This year was look at, look at Indiana. They played two teams with the winning record. Uh, SMU played, played nobody, Texas, no, no wins over a team currently ranked.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
So like, even you look, compare the Texas schedule in the SEC to what Georgia faced going on the road to Texas, Ole Miss, uh, Alabama, and then having to play Texas again in the, in the conference championship game. Like, uh, you need to figure out a way that that, that is like one of my fixes, uh, for the sport that you need with these mega conferences.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Now, 16, 18 teams in the league, 14 teams, you need to have two divisions. You at least need to have some clarity of who you're playing and, and make it clear as opposed to Indiana missing out on everybody good in the big 10, uh, with the exception of Ohio state and, and did some of the other leagues because it really was unfair, uh,
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
to a lot of these conferences, just the gap and the chasm in scheduling.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Yeah, right, I am. Yes. Absolutely. And that's what the committee did. You almost needed to think in like 3D chess or checkers with the committee and kind of Lay it out in your mind. Like they painted themselves and inbox themselves into a corner with, with SMU. And I brought this up a couple of weeks out.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Like if you had SMU ahead of Alabama on the final week of the season, going into a conference championship game, You can't knock them out because they play in a conference championship. You're saying, okay, you're in, and then you can say, oh, well, you got to play in that conference championship game. You're not in.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
You should have had them behind Alabama and basically say, hey, go win the game, and then we're going to put you in. So they did a lot of loss, almost gave you a good New York-Long Island loss there. Every now and then it comes out. I like it. Coffee. But yeah, it was a lot of loss ordering by, by the committee.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
So like they need to do a better job in ranking these teams and not just look at, because again, SMU is 11 and one is not as good as what Ole Miss is nine and three or Alabama's nine and three is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Fair point. And to give Miami at least a little bit of credit, they did schedule Florida. And they didn't think that Florida was going to have – and Florida actually wound up having a much better year than people thought.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
And even within the season. And we've talked about this with – With Mike and all the guys in the Miami, the Miami chat that we're like, what happens if Miami and that game is played in November as opposed to September? That could be a whole different team because the Florida team in late in the season was much better than the one we saw earlier in the year.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
And I hate it. I, I, it's why I hate this. Like you need to go out and like, I guess the nickel kid supposedly is, is, is a guy. So that, that, that's a positive, but this is what I hate with this current, like a portal transfer NIL era. Like every, it's like, Oh, we're just going to go out and buy a quarterback. It's not that easy. Look at this year now.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Oh, we're just going to go out and get John Mateer. Oh no, you didn't. Cause he went to Oklahoma. Cause Baker Mayfield made a call. Exactly. So I don't know. It's still the backbone of building your team is recruiting and finding blue chip guys and keeping them and developing. You got to find the right kid to be able to do it. I know people are going to argue and say no.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Look at Texas and Oregon have transfer quarterbacks, but Clemson doesn't. Penn State doesn't. Georgia doesn't. So there's still something to be said for bringing in a quarterback and having maybe the right makeup to be able to say, you know, I'll sit in here and knowing that as a sophomore after a year of practice and a year of maybe some mop-up time, it's going to be my team.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
So we'll see what happens. Hopefully this kid will play out. I know a lot of chatter about maybe Mendoza from Cal being the guy now. But, yeah, I'm not a fan of having to rely on that every year.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Yes. You've got multiple TVs, two TV games. Anybody remember the good, who was involved in two TV games? Anybody there involved in two TV games? Right here. There we go.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Listen, who the hell objects to more football? It's ludicrous.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Exactly. I mean, and if you're like, like what we had on Monday night with two absolute garbage games on Monday night, the odds are maybe at least one of them should, should be good.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
But I'll tell you what, it is going to be a little bit of a debate on, uh, which gets the, which gets volume up in my house on, uh, on Saturday, just cause my wife being the, uh, the Steelers fan for Pittsburgh, right, right in the middle of the afternoon. So that will be a, that will be an interesting call to see, uh, If Raven Steelers or I guess the second college football playoff game is what?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
The Texas Clemson game, I think, is the second one. Yeah, I think it is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Yeah, I would think the Sonos Click Connect AV1, that's probably how it is going to go down.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Well, I'll, I'll, I'll just do it like one by one. You, you can, you can, you can kind of tee me up for each time and react to whatever I may have said, but yeah, I'll just give you like a, well, we'll do for the, just to give you a, for example, on the first bed of Christmas, the bear gave to me the six years to miss the playoffs plus one 30. I'll give you a little bit of that.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
It's going to get really old and tiring, isn't it?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
No, I got a good one. I got a good one for five.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Like, like I am, as you probably may know this, I'm not like the biggest NBA guy in the world, but my buddies who follow the stuff, uh, I'm kind of hijacking this from them. Like, the Sixers are terrible. I know the East is bad, but they are, what, 8-16, and B can't walk. Everybody's hurt.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
And the way these bets are graded to miss playoffs, it's you can make the play-in and then get knocked out of the play-in. As long as you're not in the final field of eight to actually compete in the playoffs, like, that's a winner. So, like, the Sixers to miss the playoffs at plus 130 is a – is a bet that my NBA-centric friends think is still pretty good.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
They were actually on it a few weeks back when it was a better number, but I still think the way the season is playing out, plus 130 is still a good bet.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
On the sixth bed of Christmas, the bear gave to me the Premier League saying bye-bye to Man City. I'm saying they're going to get relegated, by the way. They're going to get slapped with a major penalty, and they're going to get sent down to the championship next year. That's 10-1, by the way.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
The Eagles to win the NFC plus 220. It's your show. You can do whatever the hell you want.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Clemson did not score 20. That's under 19.5 versus Texas for those who weren't able to figure that out.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Texas, Syracuse, and Ohio State in a money line parlay. That's minus 106, all three on the money line together. 106 is a very important number, by the way, because that's my birthday, January 6th. Wow. I feel really good about that. The math actually came out to that. January 7th. There we go. Wow. Perfect. We get to celebrate it on January 7th.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
470, plus 470 to win La Liga. Big one coming up this weekend against Barcelona, by the way. Sometimes it's just not your year. We saw it with the 49ers in the NFL. Real Madrid, Barcelona, both kind of, it's not going well for them right now. Give my man Simeone. La Liga title.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
I like the Jets plus three against the Rams this week.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
I hit myself forward. Maybe that will be what convinces me to want Aaron Rodgers to hang around for another year.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
That's okay. I love getting the frantic 9-12 text from Stu Gatz. Hey, we're thinking about doing this 12, giving you 12 bets. Sure, whatever you want. Who needs breakfast? I just need to write out my bets.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
But you're not going anywhere. The team is terrible. You're not winning next year. You are now in tear it down, new GM, new coach, new everything. You're in tear it down, Mo. You're not, hey, let's trot out a 41-year-old quarterback for another year. It's not going to accomplish anything.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Are you just applying that Jets defeatist logic? Yes, that's the only thing I'm applying.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
That will not be one of the 12 days of Christmas bets. I can promise you that. Zach Wilson will be 2026 MVP.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
No, he wasn't. But it wasn't like, I mean, Adam Gase, Darnold was the quarterback then. I mean, clearly with some pretty good coaching now in Minnesota, he's doing okay. I mean, look, it wasn't like he went to Carolina and was great either. That was another dysfunctional organization.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Seriously. How, how ridiculous is that? Like, I want to keep the last pick because I want to have another Brock party. Like, like give me a break. Like seriously, that's a once in forever type hit that the Niners had with that guy.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
But then again, this is the reason he fired Robert Sala because his team got embarrassed in London where he was for the ambassador for four years and he was bruised and he was embarrassed and he fired his head coach because of that. So it's like this type of owner that he is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Of course I was. I mean, look, he held a grudge for whatever, and he lambasted him. Actually, for once, the Jets actually showed a little bit of a spine. I like it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
I think it's either going to be – I don't think it's a middle ground. I think it's either going to be great or it's going to be a complete disaster. But then again, look, this is the guy who figured out a way to plant cameras to spy on his opponent before the Super Bowl and figure out a way to doctor footballs to get him into the game for Tom Brady.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
If he can do that, I think he can figure out a way to out-game plan Jake Dickert and Dave Doering.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
All I know is those tapes have mysteriously been destroyed and everything to do with the Spygate, with the Rams, like suddenly it's gone. Well, not suddenly. It's been gone for a while. None of it exists anymore. Right. I don't know. Will this smoke this fire?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
I still liked it at four, but I will say this. It accomplished its goal. And for that, I'll say it was a success. It made more fan bases involved. It created more conversation. It created more discussion. We cared more about it later. I will say... it was a success again. I'll, I will fully admit, uh, that I was, I liked it more, uh, than I thought I would.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GBF- Santa Paws
However, I still think there are problems with the, uh, the way these teams are ranked, the way it's seated, if we're going to spin it towards the playoff itself, like the way they see like Boise state, getting a buy is ridiculous. Um, you just need to see it at one through 12th of the top four, get a buy. And then you want to put all the conference champions and that's fine.