Promotion Dreams, Relegation Reality: West Bromwich Albion FC (Ep. 13)

Welcome back to Misery Sports Co, the corporate cubicle of crushed Dreams, where motivation arrives late, leaves early and rarely fills out its timesheet. We’re the senior analysts of disappointment and the directors of Daily Dread. I’m Zach and I’m Trevor. Carrying a workload that grows faster than our team’s win totals. That’s right. Every week we punch in, open a fresh folder of frustration, and evaluate another stretch of sports induced spiritual erosion. Last week, we wandered into the break room to talk through the coaching carousel, a rotating buffet of questionable decisions. And it was a delicious buffet. A very productive buffet. It was fun talking about that. This week we’re back on our normal schedule with a brand new deep dive brought to you by Zach. But before we crack open the emotional filing cabinet, we’ve got a message from our first sponsor. That’s right. Our next segment is brought to you by Jalen Hurts Giveaway Emporium, where every turnover comes with another absolutely free. Whether it’s a fumble or an interception. We believe in value, man. Well thank you to Jalen Hurts Giveaway Emporium. It’s uh seems like they are coming by the the baker’s dozen these days. And it’s it’s kind of crazy how they are talking about what’s going wrong in Philly without being like he keeps giving away the ball. Yeah. And he had I mean it was the craziest play I’ve ever seen. I mean he threw an interception. They stripped sack. He gets the ball back fumbles again. It’s like the dude at that point you just can’t catch a break. Like it’s not. It’s not that you’re a bad player. You just are unlucky. At that point, he broke the monsters, Inc. simulcast because the computers didn’t know how to program that sequence of events. Congrats Jalen Hurts, congrats. He is. You know what? He is a champion. Yeah, I guess I’ll put respect on his name like I do Richard Jefferson. Look, time for the weekly earnings report. Where the data is confused, the projections are nervous, and the spreadsheet is one formula away from just giving up. I will start us off. So this past Saturday was just a wonderful day at Missouri Sports Co. Um, it started out with the Blue Jackets, Columbus Blue Jackets. They scored six goals in an in an A hockey game and they lost. Oh no. Um yeah. Fantastic. So then the Cleveland Cavaliers played the Golden State Warriors. You would think oh you know Golden State they didn’t have Curry. They didn’t have Draymond Green. Love that one hundred and seven shots. We were thirty five percent. And we scored ninety four points and lost. Oh brutal. So okay you’re going into the night whatever. That’s rough. It’s fine Ohio State versus Indiana right. Big ten title game. Here we go. Number one. Verse number two. Turn around baby. Nope. Ohio State got destroyed by Indiana’s defense. Credit. Credit. Indiana’s defense. Right. They showed up. Uh, Ohio State had a lot of distractions this past week. All of that said, we had the ball inside the ten yard line two times and had zero points. Credit Indiana. They won the game. That was my trio for Saturday. What a course for Sunday. It was the NFL draft, Super Bowl the Cleveland Browns against the Tennessee Titans. Get on your feet folks. Super Bowl in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio. You could get in the door at game time around eight dollars for a ticket. Geez, they probably paid you. They gave you, like, a free beer or something when the gates opened. It looked so cool. They’re freezing cold. It was snowing. It was raining. It was sleeting, it was windy, and the Browns really came up with a few wins. So number one, we lost the game. Uh, fantastic. Uh, we got better draft position. So I think we’re down to like roughly number four now. Sorry about that Tennessee Titans. Um, Myles Garrett got a sack. Uh, if you were to watch the game, you would see that Myles Garrett was only going for sacks. He was not contributing to run defense at all. The Titans ran for almost two hundred. Um but really the the surprise of the game from my end was Shooter Sanders. So shooter had three hundred and sixty four yards passing three touchdowns. He had another touchdown on the ground. Mhm. Um he he looked competent Trevor. Which I wasn’t actually expecting. Um I know that he’s played against the Raiders. The Titans These are, you know, teams that are in the top five of the draft. But against any team to throw three hundred and sixty four yards was great. So I’m very happy with that. He’s got great touch on his passes. He can layer throws. There’s a lot to like with him. And if the Cleveland Browns can figure it out with him it makes the turnaround so much easier. So I am rooting for him. I don’t know if he is the one, but it was a good first step. He might be four touchdowns in any NFL game. That’s that’s great. Yeah yeah. And I mean first three hundred yard game from a rookie quarterback this year. So I mean it’s something yeah it is something Trevor how did your side of the department do. Well I’m writing down that we’re five minutes and forty five into this so that I can tell you it was some fucking bullshit this this weekend. Just absolute dog crap. I’m so upset. Uh, to pile on. Yes. Ohio State did the thing. I also had to watch that the Mavericks announced that third year player Derek Lively, who is a really fun, athletic, rolling big man, is going to be done for the season because he has to have foot surgery. Yeah, really. He was such a perfect pairing with Luka. He’s such a fun kid. So yeah, it’s not looking good just in general, really. His games played in his first three seasons was fifty five, thirty six and seven and big men with foot injuries. Yeah, it’s it’s not great. So that was really bad news. Vibes at the Mavericks. They randomly won four. This is how stupid the NBA is though. Uh we are terrible. Like the Mavericks are objectively a really bad team. Nobody is going to watch them and be like, you know what? If they just put it together? Like, I think they have something there. We’re definitely like a growing team. We are nine and sixteen, Zach. We are a half a game out of the play in at nine and sixteen. No we don’t. This is so stupid. No we don’t. We just need a good draft pick and these idiots are gonna mess around and get in the play in and ruin everything. So like, I struggle because I want the vibes to be good, and I know they’re trying very hard to win. And honestly, I’ve got caught up in the winning. It’s been very fun, but I need that draft pick because after this year, guess what? We don’t have a draft pick for a really long time, so I really need this to be good. But anyways, on to the main course. Uh, the Titans technically won, but definitely lost. Uh, we moved from securely the first spot. We’re down to the third spot and depending it’s going to take some dangling, some big breaks to happen for us to get back up into the one spot. So. I don’t know, watching that game in and out on Sunday, it just really seemed like both teams were trying to. Uh, supportively lose. Like, find it, find a positive way to just lose the game. And the Browns were better at it. The Titans tried. I mean, I am totally with you. Shudder looked, uh, looked great. Our defense has a tendency to make quarterbacks look great despite their anything but I thought I genuinely thought like he he looked good. Um yeah. There were there were flashes there and there was, you know, typical rookie stuff like it happens. You just want them to grow through it. But. It. It’s just besides the disappointment of the the draft pick stuff, it’s just the same stuff keeps popping up with the titans of like. The Browns blitzed it on a third and eight. Uh, like when we were down three, the Browns brought a pretty significant blitz up the middle. Cam saw it Backpedals drops a dime on Van Jefferson, and it it literally bounced off of his hands. Like, you have to try not to catch that ball. I still don’t understand how it bounced off his hands. So, like, even when things go well, they don’t go well. We had a, um, an illegal man downfield on a first down catch that came back. We had an illegal shift on a thirty five year, uh, thirty five yard run by Tyjae Spears in the fourth. Uh, our coach called a timeout on a play where we got a first down like it just, I don’t know, it’s like we can’t get out of it. Cam was on a different grading scale, I think in this game, just because the Browns have a really good defense and he’s literally throwing to JV receivers. I honestly, Trevor, I don’t think any of those receivers are going to be starting next year. I think you’re going to have a totally different group of receivers. Absolutely. They are all practice squads at best. Maybe they could find a spot as like a fourth somewhere. But it is. It is really bad. Um, positive signs from the run game that we have not seen. Uh, granted, that in large part was maybe because Miles was trying to set the record. Yeah, but no interest in defending the run. Zero. I don’t blame him because I sat here last week telling you that I was so sure that he was going to set the record and that he would have no problem. But, um, I’ll show you in a little bit when we get to our, uh, Office of Moral Victories. Why, maybe he wasn’t as successful this week, but we just. We can’t get out of our. We can’t get out of our own way. And I know, I think you and I would both agree that, like, the players are not trying to tank. Right? Like, they understand the situation with the draft pick, but like they’re playing to win no matter what the circumstances. Like they’re wired to win. They want to win. Um, but do you think that at some point decisions are being made above the players, whether that’s on the coaching staff or front office or trainers or whoever, to position yourself better for the long run? Uh, yeah. Yeah, I could say from a like an injury perspective, holding people out or putting people in new positions and trying new things. But the Browns are so incompetent, Trevor, that it doesn’t matter. We had another punt blocked. Uh, we had another fumble on a punt return. The same guy. The same undrafted rookie. Hey, you fumbled three times last game. We’re just going to keep. So yes, you’re correct. We are going to continue to put you out there. And we’re going to try to get a better draft position. I’m I’m convinced. Yeah. Decisions are definitely made that way. Um, but overall I don’t know. It’s fun when our teams play. It’s such a car crash and it’s it’s such a special flavor of bad that it’s just fun. Like even the game when Johnny Manziel lit us up, we were watching that together back in the day. And I don’t know, it’s just fun. It’s fun when our teams play. So not a great result, but I had a good time. It was good. Well, thank you for that update, Trevor. Market outlook. Wobbling productivity charts, heading for the basement before this whole operation starts. Sending out apology emails. Let’s toss this thing over to our next sponsor. This next segment of Misery Sports Co is sponsored by the Ted Ginn Junior law firm specializing in sports stock recovery. Did you invest heavily in the Chiefs and Ravens this year, only to see them both crater through the floorboards? Well, Ted Ginn is ready to fight for you. He’ll turn those one hundred shares of chiefs into like twenty shares of the Seahawks, which is pretty good. Maybe even like ten shares of the Buccaneers or something. I don’t know. He mostly deals in the NFC. It’s just what he does. But he’s here to help because he cares. And what else does he have going on. Really great fake wide open Ted Ginn law firm. Thank you, Ted Ginn, for supporting our cause. I you know what that is? Just. That’s a blast from the past, man. I, I love me some Ted Ginn. Oof! Those highlights are so fun. Yeah, he was incredible. And the Chiefs are just randomly. They’re they’re working their way into Misery Sports Co. I don’t know what’s happening, but. Right. I feel like it happens every year. But. And then they turn it around. But like we’re kind of running out of time, right. What are they going to do? Well, welcome to the mail room. The corner of the building where the lights flicker, the inbox smells weird, and the tweets are somehow more chaotic than the teams we cover. Trevor, what did you dig up? My first submission is from at syndicate six one five on Twitter. John says if you are still tuned in to Tennessee Titans football one, you are a real fan. Two you probably have a therapist and three you are a masochist. John, you’re right on all counts. Uh, that’s what we love about our groups here at Missouri Sports Co. Next one, we like to shout out other podcasts. This is from Two Tone Talk, a Tennessee Titans based podcast who just really captured what it’s been like to watch the Titans this year. They say if it isn’t an overthrow, it’s a drop. If it isn’t a drop, it’s a penalty. If it isn’t a penalty, McCoy called a time out. If McCoy didn’t call a timeout, it’s a sack. It is always something with the Tennessee Titans. Could not agree more. It is always something. But my tweet of the week comes from underdog NFL, who is in the news for some very other funny reasons that we don’t have time to get into. But look up what they tweeted about Abdul Carter. Uh, this was maybe a reason why the. Titans had better, um, the the offensive line played very well, like we’ve had two very good games which starts this cycle of building hope just to crush me. So like we’re at the fun part before it all comes crashing down. But this was there’s a short video here of Myles Garrett hitting triple teamed on a rush. And he’s talking to his uh he’s talking to his teammates about it on the bench I looked around I see guard boom center boom. Other guard I said oh hell. So it was literally if you if you watch the video, both guards in our center are just on Myles Garrett making sure he’s not going anywhere. So he demands so much attention. He’s so incredible. Uh, shout out for NFL films in the Cleveland Browns capturing that audio and sharing it with us. So there you go. What Jeffrey Simmons is on that list, too. He, uh, he had one and a half sacks. And at times, I think the Browns were triple teaming him, too. Like, he’s a freaking problem. He is a problem. Um, they’re just both on bad teams. I hope that Symons and Myles Garrett have way better luck next year. I hope so too. I hope so too. They deserve it. But, Zach, what questionable treasure have you had jammed into your inbox this week? So I’m actually going to start. It’s it’s kind of a look ahead. It’s from, uh, Akbar gridiron. And they said, oh, it’s going to be cold in Chicago. So the Cleveland Browns are playing the Chicago Bears on Sunday. And there is a literal polar vortex coming in during the game. It’s going to be upwards of minus twenty wind. Sorry. What minus twenty. Which would be gracious. That would be up there in in one of the coldest games in NFL history. Definitely in Soldier Field history. Uh, honey, I don’t think I would play. I don’t know, um. Let him live. So the the second one I have is from at Bleacher Report. Uh, it shows it’s a figure, and it shows two QBR ratings for Jalen Hurts. And it said Jalen Hurts versus the Chargers thirty one point three QBR. Okay, dude, if you just spike the ball every play your QBR would be thirty nine point six. So I think he had four interceptions. He had the interception turned fumble I’m not going to dog him because he’s a champion I listen if if the Eagles were the Browns and we had won a title with Jalen Hurts, I don’t care what you do, you can be terrible. It doesn’t matter to me. I thought it was funny. You know you and I could have spiked it into the ground and we would have had a better QBR. Yeah, we would have. And then, uh, I’m going to take us off the, uh, the train tracks a little bit here off the rails. Um, at NFL on CBS. Since the merger, only two QBs have thrown for exactly three hundred and sixty four pass yards in their third career start. Shudder. Sanders okay, and none other than Tom Brady went to the Super Bowl. You heard it here first, folks. Confirmed the goat. New goat baby. Let’s go man. So that’s the part I don’t know that Cleveland is ready for is the media circus like Deion Sanders was in town. Stephen A Smith is saying like, shudder should leave Stefanski’s trying to mess with him and sabotage him. I’m just like, I. I don’t know if we can support shudder, even if he has success, I don’t know. Yeah. It’s it’s a different kind of, uh, distraction and focus because. Cleveland isn’t like. Like, yes, they belong in Misery Sports Co for sure. But the passion behind that fan base kind of makes them unique. Whereas like, Nashville doesn’t care about the Titans a lick, but the dog pound is red. So like there is attention being given and ready to just explode. So I could see it. I could see it becoming, uh, becoming a thing, I don’t know. Yeah. I mean, they had they had a great attendance for the Titans game of all games. Like we joke that it was cheap to get in, but like, there’s still people showing up. There’s still people that want to support the team. Want to see what cheddar has? Um, I don’t know. And you’ve got the new the new stadium. In a few years, we’re going to have a dome. Um. What? I didn’t know that. Dang. Yeah. Twenty twenty nine. So, um, we’re actually. It’s like a whole stinking city that they’re building. It’s going to be in Cleveland, but they’re going to have a dome and everything. It’s going to be a whole city built around it. So, um, I think they’re trying to build toward that. Right. And have a team worth putting in a brand new stadium. Yep. So we’ll see. Nice. See? Well, good. Reckless. Confusing. Perfect. Let’s hear from whichever sponsor is still willing to associate with us. Uh, this next segment is going to be sponsored by the NBA’s new conflict resolution initiative. Because something because nothing says, let’s talk this out like throwing a ball directly at someone’s torso. Did you see the Desmond Bane situation where so he he had the ball And he was completely in bounds. But he, for whatever reason, was so upset at. OG Anunoby from the Knicks. He literally Anunoby was out of bounds. Laying down minding his own business. He chucked the ball at him knowing that he. It it would be the Magic’s ball. And he just threw it right at him. And there’s this. This lip reader that does all these different lip reading legends or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. He did it for them. And Anunoby is so confused. He’s like, why did you why did you throw this at me. Like what? What did I do. What was the purpose of that I didn’t see that. I’ll have to go look at it. Absolutely wild. Desmond Bane is, you know, a little off the rails at times. He’s kind of like a Draymond Green. Sometimes he just. Yeah. Yep. Does some crazy stuff. Um, but let him live. Yeah. Let him live. Welcome to the Office of Moral Victories where expectations stay low. Enthusiasm is purely decorative and the trophies are made of recycled printer paper. That’s right, we are mandated to give out awards every week despite our teams play. And my employee of the week goes to Tyler Shuck, the New Orleans Saints quarterback. The Saints are bad. They are bad. Bad. I think they started, uh, Rattler at the start because this season is basically going to tank. And he is now, uh, they switched to Tyler Shuck because Spencer Rattler was so bad. And Tyler Shuck is now two and four as a starter, which isn’t great. But this week they went into a decent Tampa Bay Buccaneers team. Uh, they might be the worst division winner in the NFC, but they’re still pretty good. Went into Tampa Bay. It’s a rivalry game and led the Saints to their third win of the season, which for me gets a huge thank you Tyler Shuck for moving yourself down in the draft order. We really appreciate you. But he had two rushing touchdowns, uh, including a really tough run in the fourth quarter. The last one was just really, you know, got the guys amped. And, uh, it was it was cool to see somebody who has very low expectations come through in the clutch and help win a football game. He overcame a lot in college. Uh, won a Pac twelve, Pac twelve, won a Pac twelve championship with Oregon, transferred to Texas Tech but had a lot of injuries there and then transferred as a grad, uh, transfer to Louisville and played really well for them and is now making some noise in the league. So congrats to Tyler Shuck. Well done Tyler, my employee of the week. So I kind of handed this out to a few people. Um, we covered Shooter Sanders. I’m going to give him his his flowers, his props. He did well, yep. Um, I wanted to also call out, and this is a little bit of an Easter egg for our deep dive, But in the English Premier League there are two teams in the top four that you normally wouldn’t see. Uh, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace. Nice top four there up there with Arsenal and Man City. They’re just in between Chelsea and Manchester United. So shout out to Aston Villa and Crystal Palace. We’re going to get into it. But it is very difficult to compete in the Premier League just from a spending perspective. And these two teams are making it happen. So we’re we’re not halfway through the season yet. Some wheels could fall off the bus. But congratulations Aston Villa and Crystal Palace. Very nice. As a Chelsea fan it is hard to say. Nice job to Palace, but nice job. You know what it’s getting over. That’s growth. We’re getting over stuff. We’re saying you’re healing. It is. Yes, it’s growth that we want to see here. So there you go. Congrats to all of our award winners. Your awards will almost assuredly be lost immediately. That’s right. Now it is time for our deep dive, our investigative department, where we analyze fan bases with the precision of an overworked intern. As mentioned in the previous segment, I’m going to go over the pond and we are going to go to England of all places. And ultimately I am going to cover West Bromwich Albion. Hey, better known as West Brom. Yeah. Um, before I do that, I really want to lay the groundwork of English football leagues and what that looks like, because it is so different from what we see in the US. So in the US, you just have one big, you know, league. It might be the MLB, NBA, NFL, whatever the case, there’s a big league, there’s a big sports league. You know they’ll expand and add new teams. But they’re never typically removing. They might move teams. There’s not much in terms of other leagues. There’s some farm systems, right. But there’s no way for those farm systems to really participate. They’re just feeding into the big league. Totally different over in England. So just to to kind of look at it from a high level. There’s five main leagues in England. And you can also include Wales the Premier League most everybody knows about. That’s the highest league. That’s the NFL of soccer or football if you will. You know Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City everybody knows the big the big names. There’s four more rungs to this ladder right. So the next three are what they call EFL English football leagues. EFL Championship is that second rung which is confusing. If it is very confusing the naming system makes no sense. They used to have. So I’m glad you brought this up. They used to have just Division one, two, three. It was like that would make so much more sense. Yeah, right. So EFL Championship is the second rung below Premier League, EFL League One is that third rung, EFL League Two is the fourth rung and the National League is the fifth rung. Now when you think about this, I want I want our viewers really to, to be able to, to grasp just how tricky it is to get in and out of these leagues, because you can. That’s the difference between these leagues and in the US every year, typically the top two to four, you know, three teams are going to get promoted. So they’re going up a rung on the ladder. And then there’s teams that go down rungs in the ladder. So typically it’s going to be your bottom three teams are coming down. Why is that important. Well it’s really cool because it gives opportunity to teams to move up. But there are huge financial implications. So if you go to the very bottom rung, the National League, it is semi-pro. You’re not making much. You know, if you sell a few tickets, that’s probably your revenue. Go to EFL League Two, which is the fourth rung. Your average from what I could find is about seven million dollars in revenue for the team. So that’s everything you have no EFL League One jumps to ten million. Not a big jump. No. No EFL Championship. That second rung is forty million. So a decent chunk of change. Yeah. And then if you get to the Premier League the average is three hundred and forty million dollars. Good gracious. Yeah. So it depends on your your place in the standings. You know, the bottom teams are probably around one hundred and fifty million in the Premier League. But someone like a man city you’re looking at six hundred seven hundred million dollars. Insane. Insane. Absolutely bonkers. Um, so that’s a key difference. I actually think it’s really interesting. And if you haven’t seen Welcome to Wrexham. They do a great job of covering all these leagues as they go through the journey. Uh, Ryan Reynolds, Rob Mac, they buy a team. Highly recommend watching that show just to get an understanding for how difficult it is to get into each of these leagues. Mhm. Um, jumping into West Brom we cover it very quickly. They were actually founded in eighteen seventy eight at the beginning of soccer. Um, they were part of the very first league in England, arguably the first official soccer league in the world in eighteen eighty eight. Um, and so they have a storied history. Um, the other thing that I think is really cool with West Brom, they’ve been in the same stadium since nineteen hundred. Wow. Yeah. Um, so they have a a ton of history. Now, why did I pick them? So if you look at since two thousand, their record is almost exactly five hundred. Three hundred and seventy eight wins, two hundred and eighty eight draws and three hundred and eighty losses. Mhm. So darn near one one one in this on average. And why did I pick them. They have one of the highest levels of relegation all time. Oh twelve relegations with ten promotions all time. If you were looking at since two thousand they’ve had five and five. So five promotions, five relegations. And you know growing up I remember West Brom because you know twenty tens they were in the Premier League. Mhm. Um they were a pretty darn good team. They had thirteen seasons in the Premier League since two thousand and they did win a title, but it was in that EFL Championship in two thousand and seven. Yep. So it’s hard for me and I want your thoughts on this. It’s hard for me to really conceptualize because the Cleveland Browns would go down. They would be relegated. Oh my gosh, would be there with you. Yep. How would you, as a fan, handle being in that second tier, but knowing that you’re competing and end up winning a title at some point? It’s just a weird thing as an American to think about. Yeah, it is weird to think about. I would love to see it though, because it would it would give some smaller markets, uh, a chance to, to really shine, I think. So moving down would definitely hurt my interest as a fan, because obviously you’re not competing for as high of a championship. I think I would be really interested that first year. So you were just up there. You know what it’s like to be promoted and to win. Can you quickly translate that into a better season? Because I have to believe if you go down and then have a bad season, even if you’re not relegated, if you just finish middle of the table, that’s got to be so demoralizing because you feel like you’re stuck and we’re never going to get back there again. And so my interest would just fall off a cliff. And I’m glad you brought up those first few years. I forgot to mention it. They have these what they call parachute payments. So when you go from, you know, the highest league, Premier League down to the EFL Championship for the next several years, they pay you a portion of what you would have gotten at the Premier League. So. Oh, you get a little bit of a step ahead to try to get back into the Premier League. And you’re right, if you didn’t do that in the first few years, then that money dries up and you’re in trouble because that’s what you you use to used to buy players, right? That’s interesting that they do that then. Because instantly, as I understand it, because I’ve also watched a little bit of Welcome to Wrexham and would definitely recommend it to our shareholders. It’s such a great show is if you move down, you’re basically turning over your roster because you can no longer afford to pay people at that level. So then you’re having to find new players, you’re having to find free agents that are not already on a team in whatever level you’re moving to. And so it becomes very difficult very quickly to try and field a team that has good chemistry and then reverse side when you get promoted and move up. Well, now you have a lot of money. You can buy better players, so then you’re sort of starting over again with a new chemistry because you’ve added folks. And the what it takes to be a manager is mind blowing over there to build those teams sort of every year on the fly? Absolutely. And that’s why when I see someone like an Aston Villa and a Crystal Palace having success in the Premier League or even like Leicester City all those years ago, right? Winning the Premier League is insane. Yeah. It’s insane. So even Leicester City is in the EFL Championship right now. And when you look at the table West Brom, Leicester like these are relatively well known and they’re in the middle of that second league. So Leicester City is thirteenth. Uh West Brom is sixteenth. I’ve seen Swansea City before there. Yeah Swansea Swansea had a great run where they were like miracle after miracle avoiding relegation. But yeah Swansea was up there for a while. I feel like there aren’t they Welsh. That was like one of the few Welsh teams and they’ve been I haven’t, I haven’t seen them in a hot minute. Yep, yep I think you’re one hundred percent correct. Like Norwich City is in danger of relegation. Um, in the EFL Championship league. Like it’s it’s interesting because there’s that middle tier and they’re all fighting, scratching and clawing for the same thing. And it’s actually kind of interesting. A lot of these leagues, they’ll take three people and promote them. It’s the first two get automatically promoted and then I think it’s three, four, five and six have to play a playoff for that third. So you could be in sixth place and theoretically get promoted. It’s it’s interesting. It’s very interesting. And you could be in third place the whole season. Bounce between second and third and then lose out by one point and have to go into the playoff and not get it. It all comes down to such a small margin. Yeah. And that’s what happened to Wrexham. If you see that show. I mean it, you know they were just kind of teetering. They ended up in the playoff and they lost one year. And you know single elimination. It just becomes a A different animal. So it’s hard. Again, it’s hard for me as a Browns fan to really conceptualize because our owners in the NFL just they just want to maximize profit. They would never allow anything like this. No, no, it’s sad, but think how exciting the city and and fans would feel if your team got promoted like that would charge me up so much and bring everybody together like, Holy crap, we are going to play the teams that, like you see on TV all the time and like the the top teams, let’s all come together and, and really get behind this team versus a fan base like the Titans where we just suck. Most years we don’t care. It takes a decade for us to build back the trust of the fans and get people involved. Like I, I would rather see a team come up and take the Titans place that was in a smaller market somewhere that just had a really rabid, passionate fan base. Like, I don’t know, like Omaha, Nebraska, you know. So just some yeah, that they’re football starved, but they’re passionate and have a team. I would love to see them get a chance. Absolutely. So that’s West Brom. Very briefly I you know we talk about the tears and misery Sports Co. They are not like bottom of the barrel by any stretch of the imagination. They’ve had some success. I just thought it was interesting. The twelve relegations all time, the five relegations since two thousand. Like you’re riding some waves. Obviously you’re getting promoted in order to get relegated, but, um, it’s pretty wild. Yeah, well, they’re poor fans suffer, suffer a team that’s bleak, avoidable, chronically misunderstood our specialty here at MSC. And that concludes the deep dive. For follow up questions please contact HR. Who is taking an extended break. I don’t think they work here anymore. I think he charges left. We’re looking into that, though. We’ll figure it out. I think it’s us. Oh, shoot. Uh, yeah. Give us give us some time, then, uh, redirecting. And now a message from a sponsor who absolutely regrets being here. South bend security systems. Ever get home late and find the door is locked and you just can’t get in? And you were really expecting to, like, you feel like it’s your right to be let in, even though you share the house with a whole bunch of people. But you feel like you’re kind of the most important one, and you should be let in, even though you’ve only been inside like twice, with very mixed results. Well, now you can call South Bend Security Systems, who will file some paperwork for new digital locks to make sure you can always get in, even if there’s no room for you with South Bend security systems. Oh, good old South Bend, good old South, didn’t they? I, I heard something where they signed a contract where like they’re automatically in next year. Correct as long as they finish in the top twelve. The committee is not allowed to leave them out. Wow. Well, we thank you. South Bend Security, and thank you for sponsoring more time to talk about this, Trevor, because I want, you know, the listeners to know that Trevor and I do not share anything that we are going to say on this show. We don’t ever whether it’s the deep dive, the employees of the week. Um, we are now diving into the pep talks, our attempt at optimism, how however fragile it may be. You wouldn’t guess it, Trevor, but my my pep talk is going to go to Notre Dame. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. It’s written on the page. Um, hey, Notre Dame fans, um, I know that you you know, you just root for your team. You want to see him in the playoff? Um, it’s not really your fault. It’s your team’s fault. Uh, join a conference, figure this out. I don’t care. ACC, SEC, big ten. Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Just pick one. Close your eyes and pick a freaking conference I don’t care. It could even be the big twelve at this point. I mean, Texas Tech looks like they’re showing up BYU. I don’t care Notre Dame. Um, so sorry to the fans. You had a great team. Absolutely. Should have been in consideration. But not being in a conference robbed you of that conference championship. Get in a conference. What are we doing? Pick an easy one. Like Zach said, we don’t care. Just get in one. Whichever one you want. Uh, well, I’ve got a pep talk. And again, we don’t talk about this, um, ahead of time. Uh, my pep talk is just to college football fans in general, including those that just got pepped up by Zach’s pep talk. Uh, everybody seems angry right now. Like the temperature is pretty spicy around college football and there’s a lot to be angry about. And maybe it’s because of your team doing something. See Notre Dame, see Michigan as we’re learning. Breaking news coming across our desk, uh, in real time. But everybody seems upset about something. Something. And, uh, a lot of it has to do with the playoff and the current format. Let me just remind everybody where we came from. So growing up, we had a system where we would feed a bunch of mystery information into a computer that would then decide which two teams the computer wanted to play for the national championship. And it was awful. It was the worst thing we’ve ever. It was the worst deal we’ve ever had. It basically you had to win all of your games, and if you weren’t going to win all of your games, if at least you know a few teams, if there was only one undefeated team, then you better have. You had to lose late in this or you had to lose early in the season. I remember in college it was like who? Who lost last? That shouldn’t matter. Who lost last like that doesn’t matter. But it was like, oh well, this team has one loss and theirs came later in the season than this other team, so they’re out. That made no sense. We came from a terrible system. And yes, I’m speaking as an Ohio State fan and we benefited from that terrible system in two thousand and seven, and we got to the national championship because of a terrible system. But like that was the worst. This is better and maybe getting towards something great. So let’s all remember that while we’re complaining and whining that this is terrible, it’s better than it was before. And what a privilege to be whining about a system that doesn’t feed information into a computer that decides for us. Could you imagine the complete Melt down after Ohio State lost a three point game to Indiana in the Big Ten title game and the BCS. It would have been a rematch. Yes, it would be Indiana versus Ohio State for the national championship. Yes, yes, it would have been. I’m not going to you know, I would argue that those are two top teams. I don’t know if they’re the best teams. So let’s get more teams in there like I don’t know twelve. Notre Dame absolutely. You lost two games. One of them at home. Like stop both two future playoff teams. It’s not perfect. I hate the committee. I hate the weekly show. You know, just don’t do that. You’re you’re setting yourself up for failure. Totally agree. Totally agree. Just do it at the end. Just tell us who’s in if you’re going to do the committee. Uh, but let’s figure out a system where we can have some auto bids and maybe make these conference championship games, which I’m fearful for their future. But let’s keep those around and keep them out. But anyways, we’re in a better we’re in a better way now. So here we go College football fans. That’s right. Well, that wraps up this week at Missouri Sports Company, where each episode doubles as a reminder to document your stress levels. Follow us online. We have an X. I guess it’s Twitter account. Um, make sure that you send us your most cursed takes. You listen to us, whether it’s Spotify, Apple Podcast, Pocket Casts, you name it, we are out there. Let us know which team is personally sabotaged your week. We’ll return with more analysis, more chaos, and maybe, just maybe, one moral victory worth acknowledging. Until then, clock out. Decompress. And remember, m