Rich Weighs In on Indiana HC Curt Cignetti Essentially Calling the SEC a Bunch of Crybabies

Rich does not hide it. "I just love Kurt Cignetti," he said. "He had me at hello."

The affection is earned, and Rich laid out the case. Indiana are undefeated national champions with a quarterback taken first overall. What Cignetti has built there is, in Rich's words, off the charts. The more interesting claim followed: Cignetti is becoming the face of Big Ten football, a title that normally belongs to Ohio State or Michigan.

The clip that set the desk off was Cignetti at a press conference, and Rich teed it up as a mic drop.

"The Big Ten is the best league in football," Cignetti said. "It's hard to win on the road. Very physical football teams, very well coached. It definitely prepares you for the playoffs. There's no doubt about it. The numbers speak for themselves."

Then came the part that made the segment.

"We don't run a hype machine up here in the Midwest. We believe everything's earned. And when we fall short, we say we fell short. We don't cry a river, whine, and complain. All right? And that's why we're the best."

Nobody at the desk needed a decoder ring. "Who's whining and complaining?" Rich asked. "I wonder who he's referring to."

Chris offered Notre Dame. Rich was not buying it, and pointed instead at a bias he considers permanent. There is an East Coast bias in sports and a Southeast bias in college football, he argued, and it has always been that way.

What Rich admired most was the delivery. Cignetti never named the conference.

"Certainly if he's going to slag on the SEC without saying the conference's name, I love it," Rich said.

Chris called that cowardly. His position was that if you are going to swing, name the school, name the players, name Finebaum, rather than make veiled threats.

Rich pushed back that Cignetti is not threatening anyone, then went after the source of the objection. Chris, he pointed out, lives in an SEC household and is a passionate SEC fan who roots for both the ACC and the SEC. Chris conceded the point, more or less, which did not stop him from insisting Rich is the weird one for loving a coach whose team is in Michigan's conference and whom Michigan plays this year.

The Whittingham detour was the sleeper of the segment. Michigan's new head coach has said he will approach the Ohio State rivalry with less hatred, and Rich, who is paraphrasing, is having none of it. A rivalry is a rivalry, he allowed, but the idea that you do not have to hate your rival did not land.

"Coach, you don't like that," Rich said. "I just saw you on Monday. If you told me that, yeah, you do."

His diagnosis was that Whittingham is too tight with Urban Meyer. He called it the Urban effect, and said the coach needs to quit Urban, before admitting where this was headed: "I'm dragging him down to my level."

Credit where due, though. Whittingham did refer to Ohio State as simply Ohio in a press conference, which Rich noted with approval, having told John Henry Daley on Monday to just sneak it in there. So the coach gets it.

The segment closed with a rapid-fire round. Indiana making the playoff drew a yes, on the strength of the sixth best title odds. Indiana repeating as Big Ten champion drew a no, with Ohio State taking it on the back of Julian Sayin. Big Ten over SEC for the championship, with Texas or Georgia as the SEC's best shot.

Then a voice from the side, refusing to let it go: "Go ND. Notre Dame might have better odds than all of them."