Jessica Smetana

Marcus Freeman coming in when he did is much better positioned to beat those teams.

I think there's way more parity in college football now.

I think a lot of the advanced analytics bear that out.

And I would say most importantly, the school is more aligned with athletics now than they were when Brian Kelly was the coach.

I think they're more...

committed to actually helping the football team do things to win games without you know obviously sacrificing their identity etc etc that's what Notre Dame would tell you but I think that it's sort of hard to compare apples to apples because I do actually I have seen a much bigger commitment from the school with Marcus Freeman and trying to make him successful than they ever kind of were with Brian Kelly.

I don't know.

I mean, Mike, who knows?

I don't know.

Maybe, yes.

I mean, they signed him to a huge extension last year.

Clearly, you don't want to see him go.

If you were asking me to speculate on, like, Notre Dame's financial –

acumen in this situation like i think they have the money to do that obviously it doesn't mean they have the appetite to pay someone that much money um and i think a lot of these college coaching contracts are a little bit absurd if you're talking about coaches getting

hundred million dollar buyouts to stick around in 10 years and we have absolutely no idea what college football is going to look like in 10 years but also marcus freeman's current contract is not public uh speculated that he's paid among the three highest paid coaches in college football so i mean i don't know we'll have to wait and see speaking of money what did you make of the holiday bowl exploring the idea of a college football bowl game in saudi arabia oh come on

Oh, man.

This was one of those things that came out of some of the public records requests, I believe, from North Carolina.

And from my reading on the topic, the Holiday Bowl has a bit of a financial strain because of the two games being canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID.

So they are looking to recoup some of that and be a bowl that can

offer a higher payout to teams and would get more money if they did play in Saudi Arabia.