Stephen A. Smith v. McAfee, ESPN College Football FPI, MLB Suspensions

Published Jun 5, 2024, 10:36 PM

Stephen A. Smith got into an exchange on First Take with Monica McNutt, while Pat Mcafee called Caitlin Clark a white B*tch on national television. They are fighting for control of ESPN. ESPN Dropped their FPI and it looks very similar to the Unafraid Show top 12 teams to make the CFB playoff in 2024. ESPN FPI was released and its a preview of whats going to happen with the 12 team committee. MLB has suspended 4 players for betting on baseball. They have a problem on their hands.

#cfb #collegefootball #espnfpi #collegefootballrankings #aptop25 #CaitlinClark #AngelReese #WNBA #Stephenasmith #firsttake #monicamcnutt #sportsnews #wnbanews #mlb #gambling #suspension #bannedforlife #cfb #collegefootball #espnfpi #collegefootballrankings #aptop25 #patmcafee #MLBSuspensions #MLB #gambling

Unafraid Show Daily Live, and this is the place where we bring you the top sports news explained quickly and simply and without bias. So you guys can go talk about it around the water cooler and everything else. Make sure that you like, subscribe, tell a friend about the show, and of course you know, share it. Today we got a couple of things. Number one, Steven A. Smith, he got into it with Monica McNutt. But this is actually bigger than that. There's actually a bigger fight going on with him and Pat McAfee over there at ESPN. And Pat obviously had the issue yesterday with Colin Caitlin Clark a white beat on live television, so that was already a thing. And we got to talk about ESPN's College Football Power Index that came out in college football obviously, and it gives the percentage chance for who's going to win the national championship and all of this. And there is a statement about how the committee is going to vote these top twelve teams, and I'm gonna tell you, the acc ain't gonna like it. The Big twelve ain't gonna like it, and we'll pay attention to all of that. And also the MLB has suspended four players and one of them has been banned for life. And we got to talk about the issue of gambling when it comes to sports because we're seeing more and more players get suspended over these years. Okay, so here we go, right, so we have a lot of things. First thing, so this stephen A Smith situation. So he got into it with Monica McNutt yesterday on First Take and she kind of called him out and he didn't like it, and it was clear you could see on Molly's face on his face he didn't like this. She said that essentially that he talks about the WNBA so much now he's doing so much for women's sports as these that cautive producer of First Take all of these things. However, she said, well, you could have been talking about this long before now, and he's a hundred Well she was one hundred percent right, and stephen A took offense to that and really tried to take credit for all the things that women, you know, all the women he had had on the show for all their careers, everybody from Carrie Champion, Jamil Hill and all of this. And then you had the Pat McAfee and what was going on with Pat McAfee where he called Caitlyn Clark a white beet. You know, we're referring to her as the cash cow to WNBA. And this is what we were talking about yesterday briefly, is that Caitlyn Clark has become such a polarizing topic and really her feud with other people that has, you know, ignited some of the worst takes out in sports. Now, let's equate this to a movie, right, And Andrel Rey said yesterday, which turned into a viral moment, that she's part of the reason that the WNBA is getting so much attention in women's college basketball. And it's true because Caitlyn Clark has been painted as the hero in this story even though she doesn't need the I mean, think about her heroes and stories, Superman, Batman, whatever your superhero story is. They don't need somebody to protect them. They are the actual superhero in the story. But the superhero needs a villain, and Angel Rees has been the villain so far in this story. So as much as people would have paid attention to what Caitlyn Clark was doing, they would have paid less attention if it weren't for Angrel reason that you can't see me in the ring me thing. So she is as much responsible for the growth of Caitlyn Clark and what has gone on, as much as Caitlin Clark's style of play has generated interest in her. So now this translates over to Steven A. Smith and Pat McAfee because they are fighting over there at ESPN. Because Pat McAfee, you know, Saturdays for the Boys, you know that that whole bro mentality. Well, he is no longer allowed on stephen A's first take where he's the executive producer, because stephen A has taken over the show as the main character on the show since Skip Bayless bled over the Fox. So now it's stephn A's gig. And I think that stephen A is looking at this like he is the you know, the end all be all of sports takes and for the sparking of a lot of careers. Now there is some truth to this, but this what happened yesterday and the polarizing moments are literally about gaining control over there at ESPN because stephen A doesn't because he's put in the long, hard work at ESPN got fired from ESPN essentially then came back to be an even bigger star than he was the first time, and he is actually the WNBA, the thing that is growing. He was able to find a you know, hit a spark and then blew that up into what it is now. And he does not like the fast ascension of Pat McAfee or the way that Pat McFee handles his business. So they're fighting behind the scenes at ESPN. So it looks initially like all of this is about Caitlin Clark and everything that went on with Monica McNutt and everything else, But this is really a bigger fight behind the scenes and stephen A who's not letting Pat McAfee on his show. But I would be willing to bet that Pat mcfew would have stephen A on his show, because that's just kind of how Pat is like, hey, yo, like come on, let's let's let's go, let's let's wrestle for a ratings. But I want to see how well how stephen A Smith is going to handle this situation with Monica McNutt, because if he barred Pat McAfee for coming on for some things that he didn't like, and he clearly took offense and he said it on his podcast took offense to what Monica McNutt said. Now is he going to bar Monica McNutt or shut the window down on her on First Take? Because he literally said on his podcast, had you heard of her prior to First Take and people who had been following the WNBA where she was big at because she was a big star at Georgetown, then you would have known who Monica McNutt was. Even though First Take is a huge platform, but it kind of feels disingenuous when steven A's taking credit for people's careers, like you know, Jamill Hill, who was on you know, I think she was on Cole Pizza prior to him even being over there and Carry Champion, And yes, the platform of First Take is big, and yes he has given people opportunities, but to then kind of try to take credit for people's careers and not really you know, a good deal and the whole who talks about women's sports more than First Take? I mean that's kind of a general thing right now. Everybody's talking about women's sports, particularly women's basketball now. So we're gonna see how all of this plays out. But I want to point out though that this Angel Rees versus Caitlyn Clark situation. We're gonna talk about this in a short tomorrow. The WNBA needs to maximize this rivalry and turn it into a rivalry, but not in a you know, a mean spirited way. They need to do this like bird versus Magic, like the whole Converse commercial and then the McDonald's commercial, you know, off the backboard, off the seal, then off the scoreboard, nothing but net. They need to market it in that way. And yes, it's gonna rub the Diana Taurasi's, the neck of Gloomacay's and the you know, Aga Wilson's the wrong way, because those are some of the best players in the league. However, though, you need to capitalize on this, and even if it rubs people the wrong way, use the like you get. You got to use the Caitlin Clark phenomenon as a as a commercial for everything else that you're doing. So if the other women, who are the better women in the league right now, if they go on and put on shows every night while everybody is trying to watch Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, now you really got something because then you can hook fans in to what you're doing. All right, next thing up, ESPN dropped their College Football Power Index, and this became a thing because it looks very similar to my top twelve teams that I said we're gonna make the College Football Playoff in twenty twelve. And that video is available on YouTube, just easy to look up. And when you looked at what they did, I was like, oh my gosh, this is a preview of how the College Football Playoff Committee is going to vote. Let me give you a prime example. So here is what it looks like. So you have obviously Georgia one on down to SMU at twenty five. Here's the part I want you to pay attention to. On this low graph here is you have Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Missouri, LSU, Texas, and m Ole miss Auburn, floor Florida all in the top twenty five of the Football Power Index. That's eleven out of the sixteen teams in the SEC. So when it comes time to pick the twelve teams, obviously four are going to be taken up by the Power five of well the Power four champions plus a non power five, so that leaves seven at large bins. And when the computers already are in love with the SEC in here. So you got eleven SEC teams and then big ten teams. You got Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, USC, and that's the end of the story. So you got five there. So when it comes time for the computers to spit out their you know, analytical information for the committee to devise. And despite the SEC only playing eight conference games, how do you think that this is going to work out? You think that this is going to be an even distribution? Absolutely not. You are going to have you are going to have there be So I gave you the five and of the seven teams left, you're gonna have. If it's a big name, you might be able to get Florida State and Clemson in. So if that works out, so the ACC can get two teams in. But I want you to point out, but I want you to look at how many Big twelve teams are in there. You got Kansas They're not gonna make the College Football Playoff. You got Kansas State, and you got Arizona. That's what you got. So how is this supposed to work? Because there's no Utah, So the Big twelve is looking like a one team bit and then that push you at five teams left. Five teams left, so now you're gonna have probably three more SEC teams, which is gonna put you at four, and then you're gonna have two more Big ten teams. So now that leaves you with four SEC teams, three Big Ten teams, two ACC, one Big Twelve, and you're looking at the at well, the non Power five group of five teams as well. This is the way the College Football Playoff is going to be broken up. And if you don't get that second ACC team, now you're looking at or that second Big twelve team. Now you're looking at four SEC, four Big Ten. And this is where the Big Ten is going to push back on the College Football Playoff Committee and everything else. This is where they're gonna push back because the SEC is only playing nine conference games. You cannot in any way, shape, form or fashion look at the SEC and look at the Big Ten and be like, oh, yes, one is significantly better than the other. No, both of these teams, both of these conferences are comparable. So now the SEC Gauntlet is no longer just the gauntlet that people wanted to tell you that it was. This SEC Gauntlet is actually in reality a you know a exactly what is going on in the Big Ten because Ohio State is playing Oregon, you got Michigan playing Ohio State. And in the SEC, with only eight conference games, you're not going to have as many of those games, which also gives the free wins. And I've tried to explain this many many times, which is when you only play eight conference games and you don't play and the majority of your teams aren't playing ten Power five games, you have put yourself in a position to have less losses than the other conferences. And when there are big time matchups in the Big ten, Big twelve ACC and the SEC's playing those November cupcakes, now they get artificially pushed up the rankings, which manipulates the college football playoff and in this case, well it used to be the top four, but now it is the top twelve. So because how can you look at these schedules and say that one team is so much better then that their schedule is so much better than the other when their non conference is not looking exactly when they have three essentially free wins in the non conference, while the Big ten teams are going to be playing in absolute Gauntlet, and then that took us to what was the percentage chance of teams to make the college football playoff. So you have Georgia number one, eighty Damn Near Oregon at seventy six percent, which is probably the highest that they've ever been in the history of the of the program, Texas up there, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Alabama. This looks like the typical cast of characters, except for you are going to end up with, you know, the the mandatory buy ins because you have two S two ACC teams in here in Florida State and Clemson, a ton of SEC teams, and then you got a few Big ten teams and Notre Dame. So this is going to be very very interesting and something that I want you guys to point out and pay attention to. All Right, next thing up, the MLB has suspended four players. They have suspended you know, A's right handed pitcher Michael Kelly for a year, Padre's left handed pitcher j Groom a year, Phillies infielder Jose Rodriguez for a year, and Diamondbacks pitcher Andrew Salfrank for a year. But they gave a lifetime Baan to Marcano, who plays for the Padres. This dude bet one hundred and fifty thousand dollars on baseball and is and the total amount that he bet on the MLB was eighty seven, three hundred and nineteen dollars. Now the average amount per bet, the average amount per bet that he bet was three hundred and seventy eight dollars. Number of MLB bets two thirty one, twenty five pirates games bet on and he only won four point three percent of his bets. So number one, he sucks at betting. But number two, we're seeing more and more players suspended in every single sport for gambling. We just saw NBA Michael Porter, Junior's brother get banned for life from the NBA. We've had in the NFL, we've had like there were more Detroit Lions suspended for gambling in twenty twenty three than the NFL suspended for gambling in its first ninety eight years of existence. But here's the question. With the invention of you know, all of these betting sites and everybody that can bet, the access of availability, people are thinking that it is the access that is allowing people to bet more. It has lowered the barrier for entry. Yes, However, people who are betting on the sports that they're playing in, they would have already been betting on the sports that they're playing in because that's what they do. Most people are sensible enough to be like, yeah, bro, even if I do want to bet, I'm not taking these chances. And what we're seeing is the advancement in the technology of DraftKings, FANDUE who are actually reporting the players because they want to keep a you know, because it's in their best interest to report them, because they do not want any manipulation of their lines, of their bets and everything else which affects their bottom line. So I do not believe that there is a correlation, well a direct correlation between the eat between these betting sites and players being suspended. What I do believe in terms of the amount of gambling that was going on, I believe that if these sites were not available, these players would still be betting through bookies instead of on the sites. That's the difference. We just have the technology to be able to catch the players now who are doing it. That's the difference. And so these leagues are going to have to take a big hard look at you know the types of bets that are allowed where the manipulation of the prop bets goes on of players. Because yes, it's easy to catch Michael Porter Junior's brother, But how hard is it going to be if Michael Porter Junior had a gambling addiction and people are wagering five ten thousand dollars on his bets a night. See, that's the difference. That's the hard part. It's easy to catch the outliers, but when you're you know, hiding in playing sight, that's where the issue is going to be. And somebody had to be the gunny, the guinea pig in this. Just like with the banned substances, players are going to be suspended and the league is going to have to act harshly initially because there's no way, there's no other way around it. And they better hope that a smoking gun never comes out about show hal Toani that he was anything more than just an ignorant party in that multi million dollar gambling scheme. So sports are gonna have to watch this because this is a reoccurring problem and the technology is in place to catch them. Uh, but you guys, that's unafraid. Show Daily for the day make sure that you gotts share, Tell a friend, because we'll be here on the daily to break sports down to you. Simply