VSiN Primetime | August 17, 2026 | Hour 3

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is VSiN Primetime, live from the Circus Sportsbook in downtown Las Vegas on VSiN, the SportsBetty Network.

**Tim Murray** (0:12)
Alongside Matt Youmans, I'm Tim Murray. The Rays won out away from avoiding a four game sweep at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles, came back from a 6-4 deficit, and they lead 7-6, two outs top of the ninth inning. Two nothing is the score at Wrigley Field, and the White Sox showing a little bit of life here. They didn't have a hit coming into the top of the fourth inning. And now, Matt, they have the lead in the top of the fourth inning. Three run homer for the Chicago White Sox off of Shota Imanaga. What did you say about the long ball off of Imanaga?

**Matt Youmans** (0:46)
He had problems over the past three starts. 17 innings had allowed six home runs. And his problem here is he walked the lead off guy. And before you know it, you're in big trouble. Three-two White Sox.
Cubs were big favorites. What did we say, minus 550 or so after back-to-back home runs to start the game. Now the White Sox take the lead.

**Tim Murray** (1:06)
Randall Gritchick with the three run homer, and they are now minus 129 live favorites.

**Matt Youmans** (1:11)
Trivia question for you, Tim. Do you know who Randall Gritchick was drafted before? One spot before in the Major League Baseball draft. Let's say about 12 years ago.

**Tim Murray** (1:19)
Mike Trout.

**Matt Youmans** (1:20)
That's it.

**Tim Murray** (1:21)
All right, let's head to our progressive guest line. Welcome in a gentleman who definitely would be drafted ahead of Mike Trout in my eyes. The one and only Brett McMurphy, America's Insider on three. You can follow him on Twitter at Brett underscore McMurphy. Brett, the AP Top 25 came out today, and you were putting out a lot of nuggets of information regarding the AP Top 25 We'll start with the one for Ohio State, Faithful Ohio State Bettors. Not ideal if you've got Ohio State future, huh?

**Brett McMurphy** (1:54)
Yeah, look, I mean, every year is independent of itself, but when you have it, I have to say, oh, you look at a trend and you can say whether it's a good trend or not. But when something has happened 20 out of 22 years, it's pretty telling. And that is the preseason number one ranked team has not won the national championship in 20 of the last 22 years. You have to go all the way back to 2017 when Alabama did it for the last number one preseason team to win it. I don't know what you guys think. Part of that's probably you got a target on your back of those cliches.
There's nowhere to go but down. And I just think teams can't live up to that scrutiny for an entire season.

**Matt Youmans** (2:40)
You know, Brett, I was talking about the same is basically true of the AP College Basketball poll. The preseason number one team never wins it. I think this happened once in the last 16 years or something like that. So it's not that surprising to see that trend. You remember a year ago, what a disaster, the top five of the AP poll was?

**Brett McMurphy** (3:01)
Top ten.
Number two, Penn State, number four, Clemson, number nine, LSU, all finished out of the top ten. And you go back. I mean, this is crazy. Every year in the past 23 seasons, except one year, so 22, the last 23, a team that started in the preseason top ten finished the year unranked. So just take a glance there at your top ten. Who are you guys picking to finish unranked out of that group?

**Matt Youmans** (3:34)
Boy, Tim, who are you picking to finish unranked? Ole Miss?

**Tim Murray** (3:38)
Either them or A&M. I would say if I had to pick one.

**Brett McMurphy** (3:43)
Texas A&M?

**Tim Murray** (3:43)
Yeah, I would say I would probably pick Ole Miss.

**Matt Youmans** (3:46)
I'd go Ole Miss or Texas A&M, one of those teams.

**Tim Murray** (3:49)
I like Oklahoma's defense too much. I do think they should be able to stay in the top 25

**Matt Youmans** (3:55)
Brett, I believe you're very high on Oregon. That's my number two team. You like the Ducks quite a bit, right?

**Brett McMurphy** (4:01)
I do, Matt. I've got them number one. And look, anyone in the top six or seven, I have no argument if you want to put them number one. I just think, and I think you guys have talked about this before, you know, you compare it to a professional team that gets close year after year and advances a little bit further in the playoffs each year until they finally get through and win the whole thing. I think that's the case with Oregon. A lot of guys, it could have gone to the NFL that stuck around. Dante Moore is coming back.