Episode summary

This episode focused on the College World Series, Auburn's recruiting strategy, and the impact of NIL on college sports, featuring insights from Adam Spencer and Brian Matthews. The discussion highlighted Troy's Cinderella run, Texas vs. Alabama in the World Series, and concerns over financial incentives and system reform in college athletics.

Highlights

  • Adam Spencer discusses Troy's Cinderella run in the College World Series, citing their victories over Ole Miss, Florida, and Alabama.
  • Georgia is highlighted as a strong favorite in the elimination round due to its pitching and offensive capabilities.
  • Brian Matthews notes Auburn's 18 commitments, ranking 10th nationally, and mentions the expanded roster size of 105 players.
  • The conversation critiques the current college football system for becoming expensive and inaccessible for fans.
  • Alabama baseball faces Texas in the World Series, with Brett Beaird noting the game will be more competitive than their recent loss to Oklahoma.
  • Kenneth Simon decommitted from Alabama and re-signed with Tennessee, possibly due to increased NIL offers.

Full show transcript (text version of the audio, for readers who are deaf or hard of hearing)

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[0:00] Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee. It's time for the Valley's Exclusive FM Sports Voice. The Boomo Bugg Show. Your exclusive inside track to the Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Good afternoon and welcome in to the Boomo Bugg Show. I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird. Thank you so much for giving us a free ride around the Tennessee Valley. Brett Beaird, welcome in where the Big 12 says Texas Tech, not so fast, my friend.

And during the Crimson Tide rollback with their backs against the wall. Good afternoon. Welcome in to The Short Show. How are you? Happy Monday to you and the listeners that you alluded to. Alabama must beat Texas this afternoon to stay in the College World Series. And you can hear that game beginning at 1245, of course, on 93.9 The Score. Troy beats Ole Miss to advance in the College World Series. The Cinderella story continues. The Braves are scuffling after losing a series to the New York Mets. And also pitcher Spencer Strider with another arm injury.

Adam is here right now, though, to talk about the SEC and the College World Series and to update his rankings for playoff teams. Adam is Adam Spencer. He's busy there at Saturday down south, also at Sports Betting Dime. Adam, welcome in. Happy Monday to you. How are you? I'm doing great, guys. How are you? Hey, man. Yeah, we're doing all right. When we get into the obvious about Alabama and a lot of other stuff, let's talk about Cinderella. Everybody's talking about Troy being, you know, flash and dark.

No, they've beaten Ole Miss, eliminated one of the powerhouses, the former national champion in the SEC. They've beaten Florida. They've beaten Alabama this year. How about those Trojans? Yeah, I mean, this is what the College World Series is all about. I mean, you know, you see these teams that make these runs, you know, usually it gets down to an SEC team or two at the end. But, you know, there's some fun runs here. And, you know, it's been a particularly crazy one because, you know, you had Cal Poly that was involved in the Super Regional.

You had Troy, West Virginia is kind of an underdog, too. So, I mean, it's been a really fun year and that side of the bracket, you know, was looking like it could be chaos. And it has been so far. Troy now has a chance to, you know, keep its run going. And that would be pretty awesome to see them make it all the way to the final. And it's great to see because, like you mentioned, you know, they beat Alabama this year. They beat Florida this year.

You know, they didn't necessarily win the series, but they challenged themselves in non-conference and in some of these midweek games. And it's paying off in a big way right now. No question about it. Troy is a very good team. Alabama batters look befuddled. Saturday afternoon, Cord Riker, their freshman left Hander, just quite frankly embarrassed the Alabama, holding them to three hits over seven innings. Bama's got a chance to rebound. Georgia took care of Texas Saturday night. Adam, which team advances in the elimination round? I mean, it's hard to bet against Georgia right now.

The way that they've, you know, they can win a lot of ways. You know, they've had a couple of outstanding pitching performances so far this postseason. And we all know what they can do with their bats. So, I mean, they've been incredible to watch. And, you know, they're proving that they don't need a friendly ballpark to launch some hits all over the yard. So, you know, I think that they're definitely the team that's got to be considered the favorite, you know, especially after what they did to Texas' ace.

So, you know, they're just finding ways to win. And that's what you've got to do this time of year. They've put themselves, you know, by winning those first games in the double elimination brackets, you really do yourself a favor there. And so they've put themselves in a good position, and we'll see if they can take advantage of it. And you're exactly right. If you can stay out of that loser's bracket, which Texas is now in, along with Alabama, the two should come together now, basically in just under an hour from now.

Who do you like in the Bama-Texas showdown this afternoon? You know, Texas, I think, is one of the most talented top-to-bottom teams. So, even though they don't have their ace going on the mound, I still think that it's going to be tough for Alabama to stay alive in this tournament. I mean, we'll see. They've kind of, you know, had a season that's had a couple of waves, and they've, you know, ended the year on a strong note. So, I mean, you can never count those guys out.

You know, I expect a really good game. I just, if I was going to pick, I'd pick Texas right now. But, yeah, Alabama, you can never count those guys out until there's three outs in the ninth. Yeah, Zane Adams is pitching today for Alabama. He faced Texas earlier this year and pitched very well against the Longhorns, even though Alabama lost that series two out of three. Adam, you do a great job, buddy, of counting down who you think will be in the college football playoff. We talked about this last week with Georgia, Georgia's number six, Oregon's five, Notre Dame's four, and Miami, who, again, turned it on late in the season.

[5:44] They've got a lot of guys coming back. Malachi Tony, for one, bark rate. I'm kind of like you. I wonder if Mensah may be a better quarterback than Carson Beck was, and particularly in the regular season. Adam, talk about your countdown to number one, the 12 teams, and talk a little more about Miami. Yeah, I mean, Miami's offense is going to be elite. You know, they brought back Fletcher. They brought back Tony. ESPN already has Tony ranked as the number two receiver in the country behind only Jeremiah Smith.

So, I mean, that's a pretty good company to be in there. So, you know, I think that that offense is loaded. The question mark with Miami is the offensive line because they have to replace both of their tackles because Markel Bell was taken in a later round of the draft, and Francis Malaga was a first-round pick by the Giants. So, you know, when you have to replace your tackles, that's never ideal. But Darian Minza is a little bit more mobile than Carson Beck was, so that'll at least help them, you know, bail out a little bit and make life easier on some of the offensive linemen, the new offensive linemen, as they settle into a groove there.

And they have one of the top freshmen in the country, Jackson Cantwell, who's probably going to step in and play left tackle right away. And I was hoping my Missouri Tigers would get him since he's out of Missouri. But, you know, I guess that Miami NIL package was too good to pass up there, and I don't blame him. So, you know, that's a good get for him, but he's a true freshman, and he's going to have a lot of pressure on him to replace a guy who was an NFL draft pick.

So we'll see if he can do it, but that offense is loaded, and the defense, they, you know, picked up a guy from Mizzou, Damon Wilson II, who was the Tigers' best pass rusher last year. So the state of Missouri is doing Miami some favors here this year, and I think it's going to lead. As long as they can avoid these, you know, dumb losses that they've taken the past couple years, you know, then they should be a top-four seed, no questions asked. Adam, the question is, could he unseat the powerhouse in that league?

Duke! How about that? And Davo's already coming out. Your thoughts about Davo and his approach? He is still saying, basically, in effect, if you filter through everything, basically what a lot of folks are thinking, college football is on a collision course for collapse. We'll see how that plays out. As long as we, the fans, support it, I don't think so. The minute we take our money back, maybe so. But your thoughts about outside of Miami, Duke's still there. I mean, we laugh about it, but look who survived last year at the end of the day.

And what about Davo? Is this the year that he plays the role of the Phoenix and comes out of the dust? You know, it's going to be tough because even with their disappointing season last year, they lost a lot of talent to the NFL, you know, particularly on defense. So, you know, I think, and, you know, they have to replace their quarterback. So, you know, I think that could end up being another kind of down year for the Clemson Tigers. And, you know, we'll see what the fan base thinks of that, if that is what happens.

But, you know, I think we'll learn a lot about Clemson and LSU in that first game of the season. You know, last year, LSU went in and picked up a win that set, you know, that set Clemson down the wrong path. You know, LSU season didn't fare much better. But, you know, I think that we'll see that from the team that loses that game in Baton Rouge in week one. I think we'll see a lot of pressure being put on the coach who loses that game.

So, you know, I think it could be another long year in Clemson. And, you know, we'll see how much pressure and how many crazy quotes Davo gives. Adam, you made a good point in your prediction schedule. It's very manageable for Miami. Their toughest games are at Clemson, at Notre Dame. And quite frankly, Notre Dame's in the same situation. They've got basically a two-game schedule too. But as you alluded to, every year, Mario Cristobal is going to lose a game he's not supposed to. Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, you look at, you know, the SMU game.

You look at some of these other games that they have on the schedule. But, yeah, I mean, they could lose to – I mean, they could lose at Notre Dame and still be a top four seed. And that's what I think is going to happen with, you know, having Notre Dame at four. Because, you know, I think Notre Dame will lose a game too. But they'll probably beat Miami at home. And, you know, if they – what Miami gets to help them, you know, over the edge there is that they have the potential to play in a conference championship game.

And, you know, that theoretically would be a game against an inferior opponent. And, you know, so that's an extra win. That's a championship. So, you know, I think that that'll be favorable for Miami even if they end up, you know, going 11-2 or something like that with, you know, a loss at Notre Dame and then a loss that they shouldn't have. And, you know, this is a loaded team. And I think even with some of Cristobal's questionable late-game decisions, they should be pretty near locked for 10 or 11 wins this regular season.

[10:56] Adam Spencer, Saturday down south. We alluded to it at the top of the show, Adam. Everybody in Texas Tech in Lubbock says, ha-ha-ha, we've got money, we control the courts, we control the world. Not so fast, my friend, says the Big 12 conference today. Let me repeat, the Big 12 conference, what conference is Texas Tech in? And they're saying, we don't care. We're going to file a federal lawsuit against you and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to preserve its right to sanction the university over the eligibility of quarterback Brendan Sorsby.

It's interesting that this thing is getting nasty even in-house out in West Texas. Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, the Big 12 teams that aren't named Texas Tech are right. They're just, you know, kind of calling out on this. And, you know, we'll just see how many millions and millions of dollars. I mean, the lawyers in Texas are just, you know, smiling all the way to the bank here. They're saying, yeah, let's keep suing, let's keep suing, let's counter-sue, let's appeal. You know, hopefully it's all decided by August.

But, you know, how these things go. So, we could be in for a long offseason with a lot more legal drama that's hard to follow and seemingly simple decisions being anything but. And, you know, everybody who doesn't get their way just filing a lawsuit. So, we have a lot of that to look forward to probably, unfortunately, even if the Texas Tech decision on Brendan Sorsby seems to be pretty straightforward that he should not be allowed to play. Yeah, this is just a complete debacle. I agree with you.

And good luck getting it through the courts. In time. By the beginning of football season. Season. Always enjoy beginning the week with you. A lot of things going on. College World Series. Your countdown. A lot of things previewing college football. So, Adam, where can we get online to get your stuff and the teams? Yeah, SaturdayDownSouth.com and Saturday Tradition. Just went live with number two on my countdown, Texas. So, check that out. And, yeah, we'll have you covered through the College World Series, too, especially with all the SEC teams still alive.

Sounds great. Adam, listen, man, thanks so much for your time, Dan. Have a great week, okay? Yeah, you too, guys. Thanks a lot. Thank you, bud. Thank you. Adam Spencer, Saturday Down South. Coming up, time to talk Tigers with a man in Auburn, Brian Matthews. On deck on the Boomo Bugg Show. Stay with us. The final out has been called. The dugout cleared. And now your team is starving. There's only one place to go. Lost Pizza, home of the Monster Pizza. So loaded with cheese, so massive.

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He's got the Auburn Tigers cover there. Senior Editor for AuburnSports.com. Brian, welcome in. Happy Monday to you. How are you? I am doing great, guys. How are y'all? Hey, Billy. Man, we're doing all right, Brian. Appreciate you asking. Let's talk recruiting. It's Christmas season. If you are a recruiting fanatic, at least that has been the way it's been over the years. I would assume even with NIL and all this other stuff, it's still a hot topic. Brian, what's the latest when it comes to the Auburn Tigers on the recruiting trail?

Yeah, Auburn's coming off another big visit weekend. They picked up commitment from a four-star, highly touted defensive lineman, Nate Kamba, from Charlotte, North Carolina. I think he's going to be a nose guard, a zero-tech, one-tech type guy that can play up front and really anchor a defensive line. It's another nice pickup. I mean, just recruiting-wise, Auburn's really exceeding my expectations in year one on our goal-ish. This is 18 commitments. They're 10th nationally. I just was not expecting this good of high school recruiting this soon under the staff.

They've just been doing a phenomenal job. 18, a question I think a lot of folks ask, especially in this modern era. Isn't it ironic, Brian? Your roster's expanded to 105, but yet you hear some classes and some coaches saying, I'm going to keep it small for obvious reasons. It's now a business decision. As far as the number, what are you hearing as far as the number Auburn may be shooting for here? Well, that's interesting. I haven't got an update, but a few weeks ago when we looked into it, it was 18 to 20, and it looks to me like they're going to exceed that for sure.

And by doing that, that just puts less pressure on them when it comes time for the transfer portal, right? They can choose a little bit better and maybe not have to spend as much money. It's hard to say which is more expensive, but I think on average, probably the portal is more expensive than high school recruiting, especially if you're not signing a bunch of five stars and rivals with other players. And Auburn's got some of those guys in this class, but they've got nice mix, too.

Yeah, Auburn had five in this weekend along with Campbell. Carlos May, a four-star defensive lineman from Birmingham. I thought a lot of people think that's between Georgia and Auburn. Junior James, too, Opo from Thompson High School. Boy, Mark Freeman just has one defensive back after another ready for them. I was a little surprised. Boris Chicken Garar, who decommitted from Alabama, and a lot of people thought he might be leaning toward Auburn, commended to the Texas Longhorns and their NILs. That's probably one reason he commended. Do you think that's a factor?

Do you think that may be a factor in that decision? I think that's the factor, and that doesn't mean it's not a factor for Auburn when they win some of these battles, too. It's part of the process. You've got to make your evaluations, decide how much a player is worth to you and how much you're ready to spend, and other schools may put that evaluation differently. Yeah, let Texas and the Colonel spend on chicken. But your thoughts about that, Brown, as far as the influence of Texas, who can compete with oil money?

[21:19] Let's be honest. Unless a kid's heart's worth of school and money is it, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion. But your thoughts of how that is impacting Alabama and Auburn, because over the years, there's been a lot of talent here, and now you're seeing Texas, Oregon. Back 10 years ago, that would have never been the case. But your thoughts just about the modern mindset and how the state is resetting itself going forward. Yeah, I mean, it's really flipped a lot of things, because I think the most important thing that an athletic department could do now is fundraise.

Let's get to find many different ways to bring in money and then find ways to funnel that money to football players and basketball players. You know, now we're doing that through revenue sharing, which is equal across the power schools, and with NIL, which is not equal in any way. And it's just a matter of finding the most unique and best ways to do that. And I just think with courts and everything that's happening until they sit down and do some collective bargaining and iron out some real enforceable rules, it's going to continue to get more expensive.

It can continue to be the Wild West in recruiting. And I don't really think there's a whole lot of limits right now. If there are, those limits can be overturned in court or with, you know, people complaining about things getting caught up, you know, deals getting caught up and wanting to change the system. So I just think it's headed in one direction right now, and there's no way to stop it until the powers that be sit down and start talking to each other. Brian Matthews, auburnsports.com.

To that end, Brian, I'm just sitting here listening, and just look at the average fan. Let's say the average fan is a diehard Auburn, Alabama, named the school. They've got two kids trying to keep the water out of the boats, and your school does well. You come into work one day, you get an email and it says, Joe Pham, we need more money, and you donate the money, and the school wins, and you go to the first round, you go to the second round, you go to the third round.

At what point does Joe Pham run out of money to support the school with all the up-front donations? And then if you follow it, think how much money it would take to follow a school from the beginning of the season all the way to a national championship game. Yeah, I mean, everything. You're paying more to get seats, to reserve seats, to get in line to get seats. You're paying more for concessions. You're paying more for travel because, you know, if your team's good, you're going on the road, you're following them in the playoffs, now you're having to contribute to NIL and other ways to raise money for these.

So, yeah, it's gotten increasingly insane. It's pricing a lot of people out of the market. It's also turning a lot of people off on college football, and I think the leaders need to recognize that and take some steps to, you know, limit this and slow it down and eventually stop it. Let me kind of dovetail this into Monday musings. I always enjoy reading that every Monday. Texas Tech should shut up about Sorsby and the hypocrisy of it all was the title of Brian Matthews' article. Sorsby made nearly 3,000 bets involving nearly $100,000, including 40 wagers on Indiana football while he was a player on that team.

Now, anybody will look at this. It's kind of cut and dried or black and white, whatever analogy you want to use, but Texas Tech has doubled down on all this stuff. But you've got a very good article talking about the hypocrisy and a lot of other things. Summarize your article this morning. Well, I do think Texas Tech is acting very cynically and just not really reading the room at all. It's just crazy some of the things they said. You know, the coach said he didn't murder anybody, basically.

You know, it's not murder. I mean, come on. I mean, that's just a crazy quote to say about something like this. And, you know, Cody Campbell, who's used his money and influence to, you know, push this bill through Congress, which we'll see how much farther it can go, but it certainly favors certain conferences and certain schools like his, you know, basically just said it's an outcome of a broken system when he is part of that broken system, right? You know, what he's doing at Texas Tech is part of the, I guess you could call a problem.

It depends on your point of view, I guess. But just a complete lack of self-awareness from everybody involved at Texas Tech. You know, I don't think anybody thinks that Ben and Sorsby being suspended two games is enough and the right punishment. However, I do think there's a little bit too much, you know, over the top from the other side, too. But, you know, I don't think Sorsby, who is still a college-age player, needs to be completely thrown under the bus. I use the example of Calvin Ridley, not because he's an Alabama player, but because he's a former Falcom player.

[26:25] And, you know, he has a story of being suspended for a year for gambling and then coming back and having a very successful, continuing a very successful career. So, here's an example, in the NFL where they do collectively bargain and they do have rules that are enforceable and that are agreed upon and penalties are agreed upon by both sides, that, you know, there can be punishment and there can be redemption. And I don't think we're getting either in Sorsby. I don't think he's getting the proper punishment by just getting two games off.

I don't think he's having the opportunity for redemption by having a real punishment and then coming back and being able to overcome that and getting, you know, everything he needs to become a better person out of this. So, I do think, in a way, the system is broken, although I don't want to hear that from Cody Campbell, who's part of the reason it is. But, and then, you know, when you talk about hypocrisy, you're talking about, you know, ESPN and Fox, which are raking in billions of dollars from gambling sites, you know, from sites like DraftKings and so that, you know, it's so easy to get on your phone and do all these things so quickly and easily.

You know, it's very addictive, I believe, in my opinion. And here they are raking all this money and then they're the ones controlling college football and paying all the money into college football. So, it's just a really sick and disgusting system, in my opinion, and I don't like any of it. And I just think it's all absolutely just out of whack. And I don't think anything's going to change because it's just too much money involved. And the people making the money just don't care about anything but making that money.

And that's a great point because you can't watch a baseball game. They'll show at the bottom of the screen what they call a crawl down there. The average, the percentages as far as relative to betting, what this guy's going to do. And then every time you look at the screen, they've got the logo. I'm not going to give free publicity here. But their respective betting casinos, they've got it up in the screen. All these network shows now, they depend on gambling when it comes to sports.

But I was listening to what you said there about the dude saying he didn't kill anybody. That's like saying, well, he didn't go 100 miles in the school zone. He only went 95 with the kids crossing. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So, there needs to be a little bit more common sense on both sides. Yep. That's basically what I'm saying there. And really, the bad guys are the people at ESPN and the people on the sports books who really don't care about the people they're affecting. I'm sure gambling works fine for, I don't know what the percentage of, maybe 90% of the public.

You know, but there is a percentage that it's highly addictive to and it can ruin lives. And I don't think anybody at ESPN or Fox or the sports books really cares about these people. Let's finish up with you with baseball. Obviously, the College World Series is going on as we speak. And I know a lot of people would like to be there, including the Auburn Tigers. Freshmen made up a lot of this. Tim, you had a good article about this. Nine out of ten freshmen were quite instrumental in having a very good year.

And most of those guys are coming back. And, Brian, that's what a lot of this stuff in football, basketball, and particularly now football and baseball, is keeping these guys, putting money, investing back in the roster. And Auburn's doing a good job of that. Yeah, and, you know, Auburn does have, I guess it was two true freshmen that played really well for them this season. Another redshirt freshman. And then, you know, six or seven from last year's class that have contributed a whole lot. So, going into offseason, their goal is to, you know, finalize deals with those guys and make sure they get them back and not have other schools come and steal them.

And that's tougher than it sounds because a lot of schools are doing different things to try to get, you know, in touch with these guys and try to, you know, maybe break them loose from Auburn. But I do think most, if not all, those guys that Auburn wants to return are going to return. I don't think it's all official yet, but they're working really hard behind that. And then they signed another really good, I guess it's 2026 class that would arrive this summer and fall. And they've got some really good players in that, some potential, you know, high draft picks.

They also want to set aside some money to try to get as many of those guys in as they have the last two years, which has been a big part of their success. So, once you do those two things, that leaves a limited budget for the portal. But I do think they're out there. They've got three portal commitments so far, and they're working to, you know, just fill in some holes there. But I don't think you're going to see Auburn make some big splashes in the portal just because they're really putting an emphasis on retention and keeping the team together and as many of this recruiting class together as possible.

That's one of the most overlooked aspects of this now is retention. Some of this money now is being used to keep the players you've got. And that's something you've got to take into account. You've got Bama baseball coming up here very shortly, but always enjoy talking Auburn with you. What else have you got on the agenda this week? Some of the articles and where can we get online to look at them? Yeah, I'll continue to follow the Auburn baseball portal closely and any other needs to come for the baseball team as far as, you know, farming up some guys coming back.

[31:50] And then, of course, tons of football recruiting. That's the big thing that's happening right now across college athletics. And Auburn's got another round of official visits coming this weekend. I expect more commitments and more excitement there. Brian, it's always good to hook up with you. We're going to suggest that folks out at Texas Tech read your musings if that's okay with you. And thanks so much and have a great week, okay? Hey, I appreciate it, guys. Thank you, bud. There you have it. Brian Matthews, senior at Auburn Sports.com.

BB, as we mentioned at the top of the show, it's a short show day. The boys from Bama about to get rocking and rolling here shortly with the pregame. Your thoughts for Bama taking on Texas? Texas is a good team. I think it's safe to say if Alabama has to face another pitcher like they did over the weekend from Oklahoma, it's going to be a relatively short stay in Omaha, Brett Beaird. I think this is going to be a much more competitive game. I mentioned this earlier.

Zane Adams actually pitched for Alabama against Texas. Went six innings. I believe Harold gave up either zero or one run. But, yeah, the Oklahoma pitcher just completely befuddled Alabama. I didn't think they had a great game plan at the plate. But I do think today's game is going to be much more competitive. And, of course, on the other side of the coin, exactly the pitching was not all that great for Alabama either. The sticks were not there. So we're going to see, again, that's coming up pregame, coming up in just a short from now.

BB, overall, it's amazing. How many folks? Let's see a show of hands. I'm counting now. I don't see many. When we ask the question, how many folks are saying that Troy would be here closer to the championship game than Alabama or Auburn, BB? Well, Harold, I thought Troy would win at least one game. They're 4-4 against the SEC. They've got very good pitching. Ole Miss looked like they were going to pull away in that game. And the ball kind of thing turned the game around yesterday for Ole Miss' best pitcher.

But, listen, don't discard Troy. They are a good team. They play one of the toughest schedules in the country. It wouldn't surprise me if they still win one more game. We shall see. Congratulations to the Trojans. Actually, I look at the numbers, BB, with that win over Ole Miss. They're now 5-4 this season against teams in the SEC. Ain't got to worry about any more than getting out of that side of the bracket because they eliminated the only threat in the SEC there. That was Ole Miss.

And now they'll wait to the other side of the bracket and see who they might be playing. Hopefully they can escape, first of all, on that side before getting out of there. BB, again, speaking of baseball, the Braves. They go to New York. It's a road game. They've got the nice lead. But your thoughts about the Braves losing their consecutive series. And that's the point. As we mentioned before, you're not going to win every baseball game. You're going to lose at least 54. But the key there is take two out of three to the, I call it the meatloaf special.

Two out of three ain't bad. But this is the second time they've lost consecutive series, BB, this time to the not-so-loved New York Mets. Well, they've been doing that the entire season. But, again, they're not hitting the ball. They really need to get Drake Baldwin back. Since he went out, catchers have had three RBIs. I mean, that's ridiculous. Spencer Strider hurt again. We'll see. Again, seems to not be a tear or any ligament damage. But he's going to have to have some rehab. They need to get Harold Acuna back, I believe, in another week.

But they're scuffling a little bit. But, again, they've got such a big lead. But they've got to get it together again. And if I think if they can get Baldwin and then Austin Riley playing and hitting, that would help a lot, too. Quickly, it's always recruiting season. A lot of folks thought Alabama might rack-ups and commits this weekend. Instead, they see a decommit. Kenneth Simon, the pride of Tennessee, earlier this season coming to Alabama. And guess where he's flipped to over the weekend, BB? Well, he flipped to Tennessee again.

I wasn't exactly shocked at that. But, again, sometimes players, again, they've had a change of mind. And I would also guess Tennessee kind of upped the NIL a little bit on that, too. Our good friend Freddie Kirby on the show tomorrow to update the latest for Alabama recruiting. One thing that's been consistent throughout the entire process, BB, is Trent Seaborn. I know he doesn't have the ranking ratings by his start. But this kid has been as loyal to Alabama as anybody out there. No question, Harold.

Well, he was at camp, but he's been there about 14 times in the last year. But he's a real leader in helping Alabama recruit. And we'll keep a close eye on that and continue the story down on the plains when it comes to recruiting. But first, as promised, it's Alabama. It's Texas World Series time at Omaha. The pregame, straight ahead. Rip the knobs off the sucker and keep it right here on 93-90. The score is going to take care of business for now for us. On behalf of BB, Greg, James Blair, the entire crew here.

[36:53] Harold Buck, thank you so much for your time today. Let's do it again tomorrow at noon to 2 for the Big Bowl Buck Show back here on Sports Radio 93.9. The score.

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