You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home Field Apparel. All right, folks, welcome back to Crimson Cast. Scott here with you. Another episode of Crimson Cash is coming your way. Before we get to that, I just want to be a big shout out to Home Field Apparel. They've been a proud sponsor of the entire home network. I am. I got it last week. I am wearing my Cardiac Colts
sweatshirt. I know it's an audio medium and you can't see it. I actually move my camera to show it to James so you can see it. But Cardiac Cult, they have a whole collection. It's just awesome stuff. So check them out. Home Field Apparel. You can still get in on their Black Friday sale. I think it's still going on for 20% off. If not use the promo code HOME 23. For 15% off let them know that we sent you that's 15% off your first purchase Home field
apparel, wear one for the team. It's great stuff. I'm rocking cardiac cults, James. Yeah, I know you're a big fan of those, Cardiac. Cults, you got to lick your fingers before before you snap that ball. Yep, Yep. And that team do it in the backyard, just like Captain Comeback himself, so close to making the Super Bowl, right? Quentin Coriotte to this day. I don't blame Aaron Bailey. He almost made the greatest catch ever.
But Quinn Coriot dropped a surefire interception from Bubby Brister in that game, and I think that's what cost us, and I'm still bitter about it. I mean, that's a wild AFC championship quarterback battle. The Bubby Brister versus John Harbaugh. Or Jim Harbaugh. Jim. Sorry, Jim. Harbaugh Now, that would have been a lot more interesting. Yeah, yeah, leave it in. Not going to edit. So before we get going on to the bowl picks, IU has a new coach.
You've been watching James Madison Splits and stuff, but Kurt Cignetti, tell me your thoughts. Yeah, originally we'd planned for this to be an episode of Lamentations over the season that was and didn't come to fruition. And. Reflect on Tom Allen's tenure. But we get to shovel that. I'm sorry. I I totally for. Yeah. Do you want to say do you want to let's do it in proper order. Do you want to lament the season or do any Tom Allen recap before we get to new coach Kurt I?
Googled Love's Last Stand and it actually is a song by like some small time recording artist. So that that's all I have. That's the update and I am ready to move on from Love because Cignetti is a yinzer. This dude doesn't love. He's a Western Pennsylvania and they grow football there. I mean, like, you know, if if you say, hey, we got a basketball coach coming in, he's from Indiana, Like that immediately gives us some cachet, right?
Like we know about Western Pennsylvania, knows football and he spent a lot of time in the South too. So pedigree wise, I like that. I love that he worked for Nick Saban. I love that Nick Saban has already given him a ringing endorsement. And I I think this is going to be a this is better than I expected IU would do. Yeah, I thought they would screw this up. I don't think they screw this up. One of their histories has made you feel that way. Now, I may be wrong.
Three or four years down the road and this thing just looks like a shit show. But on the face, I mean, what's not to like? I mean the guy's got a winning record everywhere he's gone. And more importantly, as I think Galen mentioned earlier, when you guys did your live podcast right after the news broke, he builds cultures. He turns, he went to Elon and turned it into a winner. Not Elon Musk, Elon, the university. I mean that's probably not an easy thing to do.
I. I got imagine that's on par with getting IU to a bowl game you know what I'm saying? Like it and we've got a fairly workable schedule next year and and he's got some young assistants who are immediately going to get pay raises if they want to come with him and he may have some guys that he wants to bring with him from James Madison. So I don't know I I I think this is a good move for IU. I'm glad they did it quickly.
I'm glad they got somebody that I. I think they out kick their coverage a little bit on this one. This is the fat guy with the pretty wife. I I think at this point because I mean sort of like Gruden or Urban Meyer or something, you know, crazy splashy like that this is about as good as we were going to get. And so I'm pretty stoked about it. I I agree with with all that. I mean it's, it's, it's, I'm with you. It was somebody who is obviously not on my radar four or five
days ago and even early. It was not that the guy that I had kind of zeroed in on was the one that I wanted. But now that I see it, now that I look into it, now that I read a little bit more, I'm, I'm in like I'm sold. And the only negative is the age. And it's like he, I mean everything I've seen he looks like a young 63, like if I would have guessed his age would be like, I don't know, 4850. He does not look 63 and.
If you go to, if you go to YouTube, you can see him on the Pat McAfee Show. He looks young. He he goes toe to toe with Pat McAfee and the boys like, and that's a that's a rowdy crowd. And he had that. They did it live in front of like a bunch of James Madison students. He had him them eaten out of the palm of his hand. I mean this dude. He's he's got way more energy than I do.
No, it's true. And it's like maybe 62, but that doesn't really matter well and I was, I was talking to it's like most IU coaches it's like a five or six year run. Like we haven't had a lot of 30 year runs here And it's like, yeah, would it be great if he was 42 And it's like we can get 35 more years, it's awesome. But you know if he can turn things around, get us going in the right direction, give us five or six or seven or ten really good years, great.
Like that's awesome. And build the build the culture that we can grow off of, like that's all we need. Yeah, I mean, who are these people complaining about his age? Like, oh, he's too old to do this. Like, really? Our president is like 80 fucking years old. Running the country is a lot harder than running IU football. I don't know. They are very equally difficult jobs, I will say that, but. This guy is. I mean, age is just number. We all know that.
I mean, that's so stupid and and you know, look, if this guy can make it 10 years and he's successful. Holy Lord, I mean, they should build a statue of him, because that doesn't happen at IU. So whatever successful time you can get, just be happy with it. If he's here five years and he takes us to a Big 10 championship game or a Rose Bowl or something like that, you know, and he goes to, I don't
know, Nick Saber retires. He goes to Bama for the next few years or something stupid like that. You know, he leaves us for a bigger time job. Who cares? We won. Like we were winning. Like that's all that matters. So the guy comes in and wins. I don't care how long he does it for. I just care that he does it. No, I agree. And I I always, whenever I hear what you just said, I'm always like, you know, the first time that someone leaves IU for another job will be the first
time it happens ever. Like, it just doesn't happen. So it's like, I I think it's always funny. I know it's not you, but it's always funny when people get that in their minds. Like, Oh my God, what if he's good and he leaves? Like, that'd be great because it hasn't happened before. Like I'd love to see. It happen, but Terry Hebner? When? When Terry Hebner was hired, how old was he? You know, I mean and and, but did that.
I mean, obviously medical situations, you know, intervened there, but nobody saw that coming, you know what I'm saying? So age doesn't really matter to me nearly as much. It's what you do with your age and and the thing that I'll say is like you know if they had hired, I'm just picking you know Jason Candle or name out of a hat or something like somebody younger.
I know I always rail against this, but you know if somebody younger came in and and had some considerable success, then I know I joke it hasn't happened because it hasn't happened. But if it if it if you hire somebody younger and they do well, there's a really good chance that they probably would go somewhere else. So it's like you're probably looking at a six to seven-year window no matter what.
Like if if you hire, you know you hire somebody who's 63, you got a seven-year window, you hire someone who's young and they turn out good, they're probably going to get plucked in six or seven years or more than likely if they're bad they're going to get fired. Like the chance of whoever we hire having a 20 year run is probably minuscule. Exactly. What you need is somebody who can build a culture of winning, a culture of football, and that can extend beyond one specific coach.
And it looks like Coach Kirk. This seems like a guy that can do that. All right, with that, let's go to teams that have a culture and are in their conference championships. We'll run through some conference championship numbers. We're going to play a little game. There's been a lot of conference bouncing around on ESPN and on the Action Network. It just shows me the teams and the games. It does not show me the conference name.
So we're going to make sure to see if I can guess all of the conferences that these are in there and I'm I'm not sure I'm going to get them all right. Just throwing that out there and I I follow sports, but it's like keeping track of all the conferences is tough. First off, we have New Mexico State at Liberty. Liberty, a possible landing spot for Tom Allen last year, also ranked 24th in the country. Liberty is an 11 1/2 point favorite. Oh, and this, sorry, this is Conference USA.
I like New Mexico State plus 11 1/2 here. I think that lines. I mean, I know liberty's been trouncing people, but New Mexico State's a pretty decent football team and they they recently beat Auburn by three touchdowns. So I mean, given all that, I think this is too big of a spread. Now this game is being played in Williamsburg, VA, so I'm worried this might be a home game for Liberty, which seems odd that you would have your conference
championship game at home field. I don't know, but that may affect the line by a point or two or three. But I like New Mexico State plus 11 1/2 here. All right. Next up also Friday night. This is PAC 12. I know this. I got. I got two more than I know. I'm sure of. Oregon at Washington. They're not playing at home stadium. This is in Las Vegas. Washington is, huh? OK, Washington is 9 1/2 point underdog in this game.
It's crazy, isn't it? Like, I actually have not looked at the lines yet and you can see my I I I think I know where you're going, but yeah. Yeah, Oregon was a slight favorite the first time they played right. So. And then Washington won outright. That was in. That was at Washington. But I don't see these teams that far that much separation between these two teams. So 9 1/2 points seems bizarre to me. There's probably a reason for it, but I like the Huskies here
to at least cover. I think they may win outright. Yeah, I I agree. Oregon's good, but they're getting hyped up a lot. 9 1/2 points. That's a that seems like a trap if you're if you're on team ducks. So when you're like. Give me the Huskies. So I'm with you. I'm asking, I'm going to ask you a betting question here. Like when you're in the spot where it's like I think Washington could just win, do you? Obviously you bet the money line, but do you also then bet
Washington? Plus, like, do you try and take both? And it's like I'm just going to bet 9 1/2 points and the money line and it's like that if Washington wins, I I get them both. But it's like a kind of hedge where if they don't win but they lose by a field goal, at least I'm like half in, Like, do you ever do that or do you just, like, do you go all in on one
side? Yeah. So if I'm doing that and I may do that and you can do those as like single game, well, I mean you couldn't do a a spread and a money line parlay. Yeah, money line in a single game parlay. But what you want to do is you want to split your bets It it. Generally, and you should all be doing this, you have a certain bet amount that you normally make. That's your unit. OK. So 10 bucks is your normal bet
or five bucks is your normal bet. 100 bucks is your normal bet if you're a baller, you know. So OK, I like Washington on the spread. I'll put my normal unit on that and I'll put a half a unit on them on the money line or something along that. So you kind of spread your money around a little bit? Where hey, I can really win big, but it's it's a little more risk
here. So I'm going to drop how much I'm actually putting on it, be it, but you're still going to cover it if you win your spread bet. So if you feel really good about the spread bet and you think you know what, there's a chance they might pull this thing out. That's how I generally go about it. I'll place my normal bet on like the spread and then I'll do like 1/2 normal bet on the money line.
That makes sense. I like that I what I normally I I will do that sometimes version of that what I also do is if I feel really good about something and this is I might do this in this situation too is like I'll bet Washington money line and just leave that on its own and then I'll put together a parlay based on Washington point spread like them to you know it's like I'm getting 9 1/2 points I feel like they're going to win
anyway. So to me it's like that's as close to a, you know, air quotes guaranteed bet and then I might throw a couple more like, you know, parlay like add a couple things to the Washington money line bet to make the odds a little better, thinking that I kind of already have one leg of it in the bank. It's kind of the way I look at it sometimes too. And then I normally end up
losing everything but. Well, one thing you can do, especially on these conference championship games where there are these long odds is if the if the team who's the underdog gets up early, you're going to be able to get both sides. So in a situation like this, if you have Washington on the money line at plus odds going into the game? And let's say they're up, you know, 10 nothing at the end of the first quarter. Well, Oregon's probably going to be getting plus odds at that point.
And then you could have a situation where regardless of the outcome, you're going to be winning money on the game. So you know that that's another way you can play if if you like betting money line dogs. That's one thing I always look to do it making sure it's a game I'm going to be watching. Usually if I'm betting a money line dog so that I can house in game if need be in game, that's a really good idea.
All right, We're moving on to the this is the Big 12 Oklahoma State at or Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas comes in as a 15 1/2 point favorite. Yeah, we got a total on this of 55. Yes, that is correct. And I like, I like the over here. These teams combined for over 70 points last year. Oklahoma State doesn't play a ton of defense. Texas does. Kinda. Maybe they can slow them down a little, but I don't see that this is a Big 12 title game. That equals a shootout.
Give me points. Give me the over. All right. Next up we have Georgia at Alabama or Georgia versus I guess versus Alabama. Bama not normally in this spot. They are a 5 1/2 point underdog playing the. Bulldogs This is one of the biggest dogs Bama's been in years. This is in Atlanta, right? This is in Atlanta. Yeah, does. That not seem like a kind of a home field advantage there for the dogs 5 1/2 Yeah give me that
all day on Georgia all day. I normally, I normally say never ever bet against Nick Saban in a big game. That's a general rule I have. So I'm going to do it here. I'm going to take Georgia. I really like that in this game we have, man, it's weird. Action Network doesn't have everybody here. So there's Miami of Ohio at Toledo. That is a game. I don't have a line for it. It's it's not. Only I've got 8. You got 8. All right, so I'm going to make you call.
I have to guess what conference this is. This is the Mac, correct? This. Is this is of course the Mac? We've got the Miami Redskins getting eight points at the Toledo Rockets in Detroit and we know they're the Ford Field. Where are they now? RedHawks. They're the RedHawks now. We'll call the Redskins. Why not? That's that's what Crimson Cash is going to do in Detroit at a total of 44. I like Miami getting eight points. Earlier this season they played.
Toledo was a two point favorite. Toledo covered that and won by 4. I don't see them winning by more than a touchdown, so give me Miami, All right. We also have another game that's not on the action. I have a couple that aren't on that Action Network right now, or at least they're not on the main scoreboard. Boise State versus UNLV in Las Vegas. So kind of a home game there. This is the Mountain West. Do you have a line on this game? I do. I have Nevada. Las Vegas is giving.
Or getting 2 1/2 points and I I'm taking them on the money line. I like them at home and I'm not impressed with Boise State. UNLV has been pretty decent this year. Their defense looks good, 2 1/2 points. We're going to take them on the money line. All right, we have SMU versus Tulane. I do have a line on this. Tulane is a 3 1/2 point favorite this conference. This is one of the last two that I'm not 100% sure about. SMU and and Tulane are. They shoot me because I know SMU
is moving to the ACC. I I would have thought Tulane might have been in Conference USA, but they're not because we've already done that. Shoot me. What other conferences aren't there? The American Athletic Conference, I was going to say the AAC, yeah. And that's where Cincinnati was last year, right? OK, Yeah, yeah, yeah, they were in this game. Tulane. I like them. I like Southern Methodist. I like points. 47 is the over under on this.
And I like the over here. These teams are going to score a lot of points. I got a feeling, all right, I'm showing Appalachian State versus Troy. That's not D1. I'm just going to. That Sunbelt, that is, that is the Sunbelt conference. That's right. Because where? Our new head football coach hails from They just moved up. I wow. Oh, I mean, hey, man, you can't be perfect in everything. I'm perfect in everything. Else Troy also Once Upon a time was an FCS school.
I think that they were. I do. I mean, I know when Appalachian State beat Michigan, they were not D1I. I do remember now they moved up. So Sunbelt, all right. Not paying close because you know, yes, of course when I think Sunbelt, I think of Appalachian State, of course I don't have a line on this game. Do you have numbers in this? Appalachian State is getting six points with an over under a 52 1/2.
I like App State to cover Troy's pretty good, but AB State's been plucky and they beat the erstwhile undefeated James Madison Dukes with Kurt Cignetti. That was their first loss of the year, so coming off of that, I think they're going to rally and cover the six. You and I love to gamble we we do a podcast about gambling I I will say if you put if you put a lot of money on the Appalachian State Troy game it it's under the category of you might have a
gambling problem like just. Look, sometimes, sometimes we do the lines for the degenerates. You know, they they listen to, you know, the the whole podcast can't be for normal people. It's true, All right, We have Michigan. Iowa. It's Big 10. I know that Michigan is a 22 point favorite in Indianapolis. OK, I've gone back and forth on this one. Well, hold on. Over under. I forgot Iowa. Over. Under. Over under. We've opened this up for you. 35 over, under.
Oh, I'd like the over on that. Yeah, you can still get it at 34 1/2. I think the over is probably the play here because I think Michigan probably hits it. Now there's a scenario. Or Michigan decides we're not going to do anything. I don't want to show you shit. They just get a field goal and then just win the game 3 two or something. Yeah, like, I mean, they easily could. If they get six points, they have an insurmountable lead against this Iowa offense,
right? Yeah, there's a possibility that happens. I'm going to guess that probably doesn't happen. I think the best bet on the board right now, you can get Blake Coram 2 plus touchdowns at at plus odds at plus 135. OK, on. OK, that's probably the best bet on the board for this game. I will make cover this 22 just out of sheer boredom for Michigan. Probably not, but I think this over definitely hits. Iowa will definitely not score
an offensive touchdown. In fact, Iowa total touchdowns is even money .5 S so over under at .5 on total team touchdowns for Iowa. They won't get one offensively, I can pretty much assure that. But they sneak in one in a punt return or, you know, something wacky. A a punt return that gets returned by the refs or something. We've seen that earlier this year from them. I'm still bitter about that. All right. Last game we have Louisville Florida State this is ACC. So I'm I'm.
I got all the two right and I was I was about to say AAC is my guest so I'm taking I'm 1 1/2, I'm going my I gave myself a 1 1/2 wrong. Scott, incredibly proud of you. We should be. I think we all are. It's been a great day. Florida State is a 2 1/2 point favorite playing Louisville. Yeah, give me the Knowles here to cover. So here's my logic on this. All right, so follow me. OK?
All year, the entire IU football season, there was only one game where we played better in the second-half than we did the first half. And that was the Louisville game, right? So if Tom Gallon can outcoach you for 1/2 of football, you don't deserve to win your conference championship and you will therefore lose to the Seminoles. That's that's my that's my
theory on this one. Plus they were laid a real egg against Kentucky. So if that, if that holds up, we're looking at basically you know you're going to have a Final four of Georgia, Michigan, Florida State and then the winner of the Oregon, Washington game. Yeah, probably, yeah. And if one of. Those, There's one team that doesn't belong there and that's Florida State. Yeah. Although if they lose, we could be in for some fun.
Yeah. If they lose or obviously if any of those, if any of those three lose, Georgia might. There's There's zero chance Michigan's losing. We all know that. Correct. Yes, correct. And whoever wins this PAC 12 game is going right? Yeah, yeah, Yeah. OK, so we know where Georgia lose. We know there's two already and and there's a world where Georgia could lose really close and maybe still make it. I I don't think they're going to lose.
But yes, that is also very true. It's harder to believe. But yeah, it's like Florida State loses. They are out and then it then it becomes a real, a real free. For then it becomes all the one loss teams vying for it. And that leaves what, Georgia, Ohio State, Texas and the Oregon, Washington loser? Yeah, but they wouldn't go to PAC 12 teams. That's for all the marbles in Vegas on Friday night. That's going to be a fun flipping game 65 1/2 the over under on that.
That's God, that's going to go go panics, man. Like go. As IU fans, we should all just bang Washington money line and just let's go panics you. Know what? I'm going to drop some money on the Washington money line. I think you should. I I don't know why you wouldn't. These teams I I don't understand this line. It really doesn't make a lot of sense to me because Washington's already beat them once. 9 and a
half is a ton of points. It's a lot of points and it's not like the game is close to Eugene either. I mean they're both far away from Vegas. It's going to be as anyway, I'm I'm with you. So all right man. It's going to be fun. Let's let's try and get back together before we'll pick a time before the Bulls start and kind of find a good point to to get as many Bulls in as we can once we once we get a feel for where the Bulls are set. I love it, man. I love bowl season. Yep.
And we can even throw. You can watch football while you're working and gamble. It's like the greatest combination of things. It is, It's is it. So is it better for you? To me, the best two weeks is still the basketball conference championship week and the first week of the NCAA tournament. So that that to me is like my apex of sports time. Is it? Where do you put it there? Conference championship week is the greatest betting week of all time for college basketball.
That, that, that, that is hands down the best week of the year because there's the most games to bet on. But this time of year where you getting lots of college basketball games in conjunction with your college football games in conjunction with the NFL and the NBA, it's pretty nice in the NHL. You get a lot of options out there right now. And and so. This is a pretty good time of year. I I usually make my most money in bowl season and and and in March. So.
So those are my two favorite times a year. All right. Well, James, appreciate it. Hey, thanks for a great season again. Another another full season of Crimson Cash. We got there. We made it to the end. Iowa over unders. They kept us going this year. It was fun. I hope they never fire Hayden Fry out there. Like, just keep sorry Ferris, keep thinking of Hayden Fry, Keep Ferris out there forever because he's just, he's so much fun to gamble with. Oh, he's great. I love it.
And yeah, this has been another great year and I, I appreciate everybody listening. Yes. So for James, this is Scott For Crimson Cash signing off. Leo.