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Answering Some Of The Biggest Questions About The Michigan Sign-Stealing Scandal · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to a very special, even more new, even more special than usual,
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Tony Gerdaman very special live episode of Buckeye Tomorrow Morning for Wednesday, October
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twenty fifth. I'm your host, tom Or the Wisconsin game Tony in three
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days, three three days. Just for people who are wondering, it's four
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days, it's Tomorrow Morning. It's Tomorrow Morning Show. It's fine. I'm
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guessing we're gonna have some different viewers for this show. The game against Miichagan
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Tony in thirty one days. So Tony, we got to talk about the
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game against Michigan and some of the things that happened in the game against Michigan
0:31
last year. We got to talk a little bit more Michigan signstealing. There
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has been It feels like we do one of these shows every six hours,
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and there's always like something new, something exciting that has happened since then.
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Since the last time we spoke about this, Ryan Day was asked about it.
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Ryan Day did not particularly want to talk about it. Jim Knowles,
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I'll Hi State defensive coordinators asked about it in a very clever gambit. Maybe
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he has not been told not to talk about it. He had, in
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fact, not been told to talk about it. Uh, And he also
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was one of one of the great gymnals lines. That's one of the joys
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of being a middle manager. Are you just you know, I'm just doing
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what they told me to do. So no Ryanda, no gymnals. However,
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interesting new video came out from Adam King of Channel ten in Columbus.
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What was interesting about it was this was in the first drive of the game,
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and it felt like Michigan was real, real on up to speed on
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what was going on with Ohio State at that point. Yeah, it's one
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of these things where you don't build up a knowledge of the signs based on
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how things have gone in the first half because you went into the game knowing
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the signs. And also I don't think they brought a laminator onto the sideline
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to It's something like, now, during the game, we're gonna we're gonna
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get the signals. We're gonna figure them out, then we'll get some diagrams,
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then we'll laminate them. Did anybody bring the three ring binder? Okay,
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we got that. Of course we've got that, because this is how
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we do. We do it during the game in the middle of the action.
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But Yeah, it just shows that they went in doing this from the
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outset. It's not something they learned in that game, but they are doing
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it in the game, Tom, So enjoy your gray area. Well,
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and here's the this is. I just wanted to read this tweet from College
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Football Nerds in National College Football Podcast. They're people that I cite on this
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show all the time, really respect their work. Not Ohio State fans by
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any means not. I don't think Penn State fans, Michigan State fans,
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or anything like that where there would be a real rooting interest here. I
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just thought this was, you know, the response to this is a quote
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tweet of the Adam King tweet. They said, on the first drive of
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the game, the Michigan analyst is speaking to the defensive coordinator and everyone immediately
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warns pass there's no spin here. This is all caps bad bad, like
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genuine astros level possibly vacate wins bad. And that follow up, you know,
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this being the first drive of the game is huge. The analyst is
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very clearly reading signs, which means Michigan Michigan went into the game with the
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signs already stolen. That's again from the College Football Nerds podcast, Twitter accounts
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at CFB Nerds if you'd like to go find that yourself. You know,
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I think that we're trying to be very cautious here and not get too far
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out of our skis on this and interpret things too far in advance. That
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does you know again, that does feel certainly suggestive that there was some advanced
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knowledge there, and you know, that's where the issue is. The issue
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is is in the advanced knowledge. Because you can steal signs during the game,
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and no one has ever argued differently, you can. That is part
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of gainsmanship, that is part of college football. For it to be on
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the first drive is certainly suggestive that stuff was done in advance. Yeah,
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and this isn't stealing signs. This was stolen signs, you know, So
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there's a little difference there. But the how they got those signs is the
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I guess now, the rest of the issue, because yeah, you can
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do all of this during the game, but when you come in already having
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that information, how did you get it, Where did it come from,
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how many people were involved, what was the direction from the head coach or
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the coordinators? How far does this go down the rabbit hole? It's not
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just one of these things. We've got a guy who has an eye and
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that he is specifically knows what to look for. He knows what to look
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for because he's been looking at it for weeks and weeks and weeks on end,
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and does this for seemingly does this for several of their bigged opponents,
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maybe all of their opponents, We don't know. But as you said,
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Tom, this is all just there's some circumstances stuff. It doesn't look great.
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However, this is what if you were cheating, Tom, this is
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what it would look like. This is what some of this would look like.
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But until all of that has proven, then you know, we have
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to stay on the one side of this and says this all looks bad,
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but you know what, exactly what violations have occurred so far that can be
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proven? Right? And I wanted to go through on this. My Twitter
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account has basically been unusable for the last twelve to fourteen hours or so,
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so just to go through some of the stuff that has kind kind of come
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up on a recurring basis and just address it here rather than trying to reply
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to fifteen thousand different people. We've already hit legal to steal signs in the
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day of the game. Yes, again, no one is saying that that's
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an issue. The issue is potentially that stuff potentially happened before the game.
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There is certainly circumstantial evidence to suggest that there was at least an orchestrated attempt
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to do that. Let that whole situation play out, Tony, this was
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a good one. You can pick up stuff on the ALL twenty two or
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the TV copy, So why would you need to steal stuff in person?
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Well, and that's a great question. So then why would the person in
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charge of this need to go and buy tickets for all of these games?
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If you could just do it with the ALL twenty two. That tells me
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you can't do everything that you want with the All twenty two or else you
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would just use that in a TV copy. There is an advantage to going
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there, being in on site, looking at just pointing and never missing anything
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and having a clearer picture just pointing at the coaches and what they're doing.
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And if it wasn't something that worked, they wouldn't do it. It wouldn't
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be done, and you would just grab everything from the All twenty two in
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a TV copy. And one thing Okay, we got a super chat.
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Super chat Ryan Dawes, NC two A in season punishment how likely? So
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how likely is an NCAA in season punishment? I think until I see it,
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my answer on that is going to be very unlikely. This is something
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where there's not a ton of precedent in terms of, you know what the
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punishment is. There's not a ton of precedent in terms of, hey,
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this case happens five times a year and it always means X. There's not
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a lot of precedent there. There's not a specified punishment there. It's honestly
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going to come down to, how you know, the more the Big ten
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or the more the NC DOUBLEA is really ticked off about this and feels like
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this is irrefutable evidence, the more that's at least plausible. I still think
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this is probably more of a Big ten thing. You know, if it's
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going to happen in the next two weeks or whatever, it would probably have
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to come from the Big ten because you just the NC DOUBLEA is like,
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I mean, it's like trying to turn a cruise ship. It just they
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don't they don't work that way. If it comes down from the NCUBLEA you're
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gonna hear about this next May. It doesn't feel like that's you know,
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you know, crazier things have happened, But it doesn't feel like an NCUBLEA
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punishment in the middle of this season is real likely to me, No,
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And I would expect it to come from the Big Ten before I would expect
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it to come from the NCAA. And I'm not necessarily expecting it to come
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from the Big Ten, but it's a smaller scope for the Big Ten.
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This is the biggest thing going on in the Big Ten. This is one
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of the big things going on in the NCAA. They've got other just oh,
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the other has other problems, all right. This is the biggest thing
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going on with the Big Ten right now. So this is this is at
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the front burner. There's no back burner here, and I just you're putting
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the conference in a difficult situation to punish a team that is at the top
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of the rankings among Big ten teams. But also this is something that the
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Big Ten is not happy with, and then the member institutions aren't happy with,
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and so it's it'll be interesting to see, do you. I'm not
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expecting them to do anything in season, but they're going to be asked to
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by other schools like, hey, to do something about this, Well we
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did because the guy was suspended. It's like, no, you're not doing
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anything about this because this has been going on for reportedly two and a half
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years now, and so the only the Big ten has done nothing about it
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yet. So they're going to want to see something. But I'm not expecting
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anything this year this season. Yeah, I mean when I say it's more
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likely to come from the Big ten in the NCAA, something in season coming
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from the Big ten is still like I don't know what twenty percent chance of
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fifteen percent. It just it's not real plausible to me that that there's an
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maybe this is a crazy unprecedented situation. You gotta you know. It also
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comes down to what can they prove? How irrefutable is a proof? Because
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if you come out and you say bull band this year, which you never
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you know, there's really no precedent for that. Guess what Michigan's gonna say,
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Hello, legal injunction and now and now I don't have a bull band
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and now you get a fight it out in the courts, And I mean,
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and that's it that's a member that is a core historical member of the
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league that is going to you know, is this something that is going to
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create a rift that is just the absolute unforgivable rift that can never be never
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be repaired time I've seen AI. Yeah, yeah, they could. They
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can in the you know, in Jim Delaney's words, go D three,
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I remember a time when the the Big ten athletic directors could vote and determine
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who goes to the postseason. That's that is Here's the thing. This is
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not a legal thing, like in terms of well, you don't have the
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evidence. If the Big ten is not happy with this, and they feel
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like, you know, do they need the preponderance of the evidence, do
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they need you know, like they just I don't know what the threshold is
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there. But also we've seen the Big ten keep people home before through a
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vote of the athletic directors and councils of presidents and all of that thing.
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So I don't think it just comes down to well, you can't prove it,
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you know, like, well, we have a bunch of evidence and
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a bunch of receipts and you're making everybody look bad. And if we if
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we don't do something, then whatever happens. If you know, if you
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go out and win something like this, there will be taint to it.
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And does the Big Ten want that if all of this is found out to
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be true, and so you have to kind of prejudge, like pre act,
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and that's something they definitely like. That never happens in football because we've
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seen coaches hide behind the the well. You got to let the legal process
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play out. You gotta let the police investigation playout on so many different things,
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and this feels like another one of those things. In the wards of
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a former Auburn quarterback as they say, it's an ongoing investigation. Just to
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go back to what we were talking about earlier with the All twenty two.
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Does the TV copy work? The TV copy comes from one side of the
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stadium in Ohio Stadium. The cameras are on the west side of the stadium,
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So the people on the east side of the stadium, the Penn State
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coaches last weekend did not have big sheets and play cards and stuff over there
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over their coaches who are signaling stuff in because the cameras are facing them and
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you can't there's not a way to really cover that when you're on the Ohio
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State sideline the home sideline, which is also on the west side, they
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have big sheets, they have big cards. This is something that every team
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does. If you are on the side where the TV cameras are behind you,
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you can shield yourself from the TV cameras, so you wouldn't really be
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able to steal anything without being on the other side of the stadium, which
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when there's out You know, when there's a report that the Connor Sallions had
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ticket purchases on each side of the stadium for the Ohio State Penn State game,
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that would certainly be suggestive of Hey, you're trying to get the front
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view of both of these coaching staffs. Next up, Tony Ohio State said
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that they changed their signals for the Michigan game last year. So therefore the
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sheet is wrong, the advanced scouting is wrong, and therefore it doesn't matter.
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Well, you know, if you put a hit out on somebody and
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the FBI finds out about it beforehand and removes the person from like the hitman
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goes to the bed and sees them there and there's a slump on the bed
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and they start firing away. But hours earlier, the FBI went and moved
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this person and got them into a safe house. Is that okay? Is
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there no longer a crime there? For the whole hitman thing, Tom,
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Not to equate the two. Oh good, I was worrying you were going
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to equate that. Not to equate the two. But you can commit a
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fraud in fraction type of thing, and if somebody has to adjust because of
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it, that doesn't eliminate what, you you know, the crime here also
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the process of changing things up, Like if you are already well aware what
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everybody is doing, and you can you have so much more information. I
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think you can also try to figure some of that stuff out in terms of
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changes. But the fact that, well they change it up so it didn't
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even work when we stole their science, it didn't work. So yeah,
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and you know, how much can you change? How long in advance was
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that notice? Because I mean, like, for example, this week,
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the investigation happened on Thursday, and you know, I think Michigan State at
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that point kind of went, well, it's probably too late to completely revamp
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the signs that we've had for the last nine months, so you're kind of
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probably stuck there. So there's only so many hours in a day in a
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week where the college teams, and then most of that has spent prepared.
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It's like you can't unprepared and unprepared ken because the NCAA won't allow you.
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Yes, there were several people suggested the photo was photoshopped, which yes,
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I did run it through photoshop to try and sharpen the image and brighten the
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colors and what have you. No I did not. First of all,
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I am not very good at photoshop, so that's part probably part of the
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reason why it did not in fact sharpen up as much as I was hoping.
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Second of all, no, I did not like magically add in,
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I have the whole I don't worry. Don't worry, friends, I have
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the raw image. I have all of the raw images for everything I posted
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on Monday night, So yes, don't worry. It's all. I have
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all the If you'd like me to post the absolute total JPEG like I can
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do that, that's fine. Yet no, it's not photoshopped, Tony.
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Tony. There was you know, the reports on Connor Stallion's his Venmo There
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was some digging in Venmo transactions in the past, and there was. First
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of all, there were there were a bunch of T shirt purchases. There
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was a tweet from Jay Harbaugh back in like twenty fifteen thanking Connor Stallions for
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a T shirt that he gave him for the Italy trips at Forts a Blue
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on it as they were making that Italy trip during the offseason. So I
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think that in this case, past Venmo transaction for T shirts might literally just
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be for T shirts. There was one for that was another Michigan staffer that
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was the day before the Peach Bowl and said GA which is the state abbreviation
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for Georgia, which is the Ohio State opponent in that game, and also
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the location of that game. So you know, we'll see how that all
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plays out. It certainly is suggestive of something. There are people Tony who
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pointed out that well, Ohio State, Ohio State staffers had a Venmo transaction
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for the day of the Notre Dame game, Ohio State Notre Dame game for
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Ohio State Notre Dame tickets. So there you go, checkmate, that's exactly
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the same thing. Is that exactly the same thing? Well, it's Venmo,
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so that is the same thing. And I don't want to talk about
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the rest of it. And first of all time, I think the whole
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public display of Venmo transactions is idiotic. It's stupid. It is done.
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There's no reason for it, Like, this is not social media. This
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is here's five bucks. And if you're trying to be discreet about it,
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and you like, yes, it's fun to put like odd answers, you
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know, odd reasons on there. Everybody does it. That's the one thing
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everybody does about this. Now, the this whole thing with the two guys
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going to an Io State game that is happening at that point is that tom
16:38
isn't a bad time to scout the opponent the day of the opponent. I'm
16:42
not familiar with football. Yeah, the the advanced scouting being the issue.
16:48
If you're there the game during that game, that's not advance scouting. That's
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just you're there at the game. Oh so that's yeah. That that that
16:59
seems like a complete on starter. I only bring it up because you're not
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gonna believe this, Tony. But no matter how stupid things are, sometimes
17:03
they get traction online. So and then the last one there was the sheet
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that was in that photo on the sideline. I have not independently confirmed that
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that was Ohio state signals signs whatever. So we're not going to report that
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that was Ohio state signal signs whatever. I did see a number of people
17:26
suggesting that those were that was simply a sheet of REF signals. Tony,
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what are the odds that the Michigan coaching staff is unaware of the I don't
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know, hand signal for illegal substitution or false start? What would you put
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those odds out? Zero point zero percent? And even if they were,
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the ref also speaks into a microphone, what the penalties are, what the
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infractions are? I do wonder if maybe because now if these are the REF
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diagrams, which I don't believe they are, something happen friends, and there's
18:00
like illegal motion or a false star, And do you see like this going
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on in Jim Harba's like traveling traveling, that's a boy, that's U.
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I had not I had not considered the overlap there. So I think there's
18:15
something to chew on there about maybe you know the disconcerting signals that we've seen
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like that, is that would be very disconcerned. Yes, yes, for
18:23
sure, So I do. One other thing that I have seen is you
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can't get mad at a guy. You can. What's wrong with the guy
18:30
buying tickets for his friends? This is something that has I've seen replied to
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me on Twitter. Just a guy buying tickets for his friends. One ticket
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friend, but sometimes it's two tickets though, for his friends opposite sides of
18:47
the stadium. But what's wrong with that? He's just a good person,
18:49
just a good guy, good friend. Sometimes. I mean, you're in
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the car the whole way to the game. You know, I'm down in
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the field during his I don't want to be up in the box. I
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spent the whole car right there. I totally get that. Yeah, I
19:02
know. I think I have long had a theory Tony that the dumber the
19:07
objections to something are more likely it is that that thing is true. Why
19:12
am I bringing that up right now? No reason, Kevin. Do we
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have any questions from the of yours? I'm my speculation is we might.
19:21
Yeah, let me just see here, because you came through some of these
19:26
Billy Tuesdays wondering if the Big ten can actually give out punishment. Yes,
19:32
yeah, I don't see why not. Like again, this is an unprecedented
19:33
thing, so there's no like well, back in twenty eighteen when Wisconsin did
19:40
this, they got this like this has never happened, So I would expect
19:44
the ability to be for an unprecedented, unprecedented action. Also, you are
19:51
you are existing at the leisure the pleasure of the Big Ten Football conference,
19:56
and you know, again, I think it is the odds of something happening
20:02
during this season. Big ten, you know, big from the Big Ten
20:04
are higher than the nc DOAA. But even for the Big Ten, I
20:07
think it's I think that number is very small. I don't I'm not no
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one is predicting that day. Yeah, I don't think anyone's predicting this.
20:17
I would be I would still be very surprised if you saw that. It's
20:19
possible, but I would still be very surprised if you saw that. I
20:22
think it needs to escalate before that percentage gets like about like we said,
20:26
you know, twenty fifteen, twenty percent. But at this point, I
20:30
will be shocked if if it just continues to rise in terms of you know,
20:33
the the strings that are attached to everybody well, and I think I
20:37
am not the only photographer who has been on the sideline of a game that
20:41
Michigan has participated in in the last twelve months, and Adam King is not
20:44
the only TV person who has been so there is probably additional stuff out there
20:49
somewhere. And so if this shows up and I don't know, a Rutgers
20:56
person has video of or photo that illustrate the same basic thing, you know,
21:02
at some point you do sort of build a little bit of a critical
21:04
mass and the evidence gets too much to overcome. But yeah, I'm still
21:12
I'm still in Uh, I'll see it when I believe it in terms of
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some sort of like immediate action impact in this season. And Jim Harbaugh is
21:22
his response is, I can't talk about an ongoing investigation. I don't think
21:25
you can give that response to the Big ten. Well, not if you
21:29
have made a public statement that you are going to cooperate fully with every part
21:33
of this investigation and in where your athletic department director. And I'm doing this
21:38
off the top of my head, so this is not an exact quote,
21:41
but basically said, you know that there's there's you know, there's no gray
21:45
area like you're gonna you have to be fully following your roles. We're not
21:48
We're not gonna live in the gray area. It was very much the shorthand
21:52
absolutely not the exact quote from Ward Manuel, but he put a statement out
21:56
that was basically, you know, there's not a lot of There was not
21:59
a lot of wiggle in that statement for like, well technically, yeah,
22:04
sorry, I was trying to crop your picture to put it in on the
22:08
show because people were asking Bryan Oz going off the this with the super chat,
22:12
how about those badgers? Oh is that right? How about the badgers?
22:18
Badger, badger, badger, badger. Yeah, Braylan Allen. Jim
22:29
know Le's talk about Braylan Allen. The best thing he does is break tackles.
22:33
Uh. The quarterback is injured, so the backup comes in, but
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the uh, the the offense doesn't really change. They still do the same
22:40
thing because that's been a longo as offense. And so I think the the
22:45
biggest thing is just the Wisconsin atmosphere, the Wisconsin ghosts on Halloween weekend,
22:53
that sort of thing that exists and you have to deal with. And this
22:57
is an Ohio State offense that is it running the ball, and you know
23:02
that Wisconsin and Luke Fickle, they're going to be hard nosed and tough and
23:06
defensive and so you've got that to deal with. And I just I don't
23:11
know that there's a ton of talent with Wisconsin, but it's it's the ghosts
23:14
that I think are the biggest thing that they're gonna have to be dealing with.
23:17
And also the line of scrimmage. This is okay, all right.
23:22
This is the second time in two road games for Ohio State that the you
23:26
know, the the primary path the victory for the oponent seems like it involves
23:32
this place is haunted. You know, this is like a Scooby Doo episode
23:34
and not a football game. They're you know, Penn State or sorry,
23:40
Wisconsin has more talent than Purdue had. Having Tanner Marcai hurt and not not
23:47
be great. That's not that is not going to help things. But you
23:49
know, overall, the talent at Wisconsin is better than talent is Purdue.
23:53
So and you also have the let down factor of the week after the Penn
23:57
State game that was obviously a big game, that was one that they kind
24:00
of had circled on the calendar, and you have to go west and you
24:03
have to go play in a place you haven't played, and you know,
24:07
it is totally fair for people to get twenty seventeen. Iowa vibes off of
24:11
this, like this is the same basic situation. This is not a great
24:15
Wisconsin. This is not a you know, this is not a Wisconsin team
24:18
that's going to go eleven and one and be ranked seventh going into the Big
24:22
Ten Championship game. This is Wisconsin eve that lost to Iowa. They lost
24:26
to Washington State, so you know they're fine, but they're not great.
24:30
If ohiouse it comes out and plays a you know, representative game, they
24:34
don't do it. You know they're doingthing stupid. They don't. They should
24:37
beat this Wisconsin te Wisconsin's offense is not particularly good, and you know it's
24:44
a transition year. They are going from a very run heavy, ground and
24:48
pound kind of team to fill long go like like let's just sling it around.
24:52
You're in a little bit of a transition year, and you're without your
24:53
quarterback right now, and you're without when you're starting running back. I mean,
24:56
there's there's a lot there that is going against Wisconsin. So you're in
25:02
an unless something stupid happens kind of situation for Ostate. I think this defense
25:06
is also a little spangler egon. You know they will bust some ghosts,
25:10
if you will, Tom, because they're kind of really really good, and
25:15
so the ghosts can only do so much because the defense will hold things down,
25:18
I think, especially against this Wisconsin offense. J Battel. Two things
25:23
can both be true. Michigan has had a good team and they freaking cheated,
25:29
and we've talked about this in a completely different context than the Buckeye Weekly
25:33
podcast every week where we do the Michigan Monday. Two things can be simultaneously
25:37
true. Michigan is an exceptionally good team this year, and michigan schedule has
25:41
been a steaming pile of poop. That's both of those things can be true.
25:47
Michigan has done exactly to its team or to its schedule what a good
25:51
team would do to its schedule. So I am fully on board with the
25:53
fact that Michigan's a good team. I'm fully involded with the fact that Michigan
25:56
has probably a It is legitimate that Michigan is a favorite over Ohio State right
26:02
now in this year's game. Totally legitimate, one hundred percent on board.
26:07
But well, and I think it's it's almost unfortunate timing for Jim Harbaugh that
26:11
once the team really gets good as the same time this all comes out like
26:15
this is when this started. It's just bad timing for him. You know,
26:18
people are gonna think that this is all because of the Connor Stallion's thing
26:23
time, and maybe some of it is not even because of that. Yes,
26:26
I think this is one of those things where if it didn't benefit you,
26:33
you wouldn't do it. There's no sense in breaking a rule if you
26:36
were breaking a rule. There's no sense in breaking a rule if there's no
26:40
discernible benefit to you. So you know, and you know, you go
26:42
through the pictures and Connor's Stallion's is standing right next to the offensive quarter and
26:47
you're standing right next to the defensive coordinator. Obviously this is something they're actively
26:52
doing. These are these are active conversations that are happening during the game,
26:53
So obviously there is perceived value there. So the plausible deniability in this is
27:02
that he Stallions tells them I got it off from the All twenty two in
27:06
the TV copy. Yeah, but I mean, if you know the stuff
27:11
that we know, and I'm assuming college football coaches have watched more All twenty
27:14
two than we have, so you would assume that they would know like,
27:18
hey, that you can't get that off the All twenty two unless unless Ohio
27:22
State has forgotten to bring their sheets to hold up and their cards to hold
27:26
up, which seems kind of implausible. We also know coaches don't always want
27:30
to ask a lot of questions. That's that's I think where you know you
27:36
don't want to you know, where did the where did the new TV come
27:40
from? Yeah, it's off the black of a truck, you know it's
27:45
And I think one thing that is an important thing, is an important distinction
27:48
is the NCAA has a rule that basically says the head coach cannot plead ignorance.
27:52
If it is a person that reports directly you or indirectly to you,
27:56
you were responsible for the actions of that person. You cannot just say oh,
28:02
but samoid to Kevin, Yeah, super chat, Jordan Kapler. I'm
28:06
starting to lose respect for you, guys, what little I had to begin
28:10
with. You haven't even addressed that this could never happen because of the moral
28:14
moral superiority of Michigan and the whole Michigan men mantra shame. I do think
28:21
that's part of why this has taken off. Among so many other fan bases
28:25
that are not. You know, Ohio State fans obviously have the history with
28:29
Michigan. Even Penn State fans have the history of Michigan Michigan State. But
28:33
it feels like this has resonated with other people in a way that you know,
28:40
when when the teacher's pet gets in trouble it, you know, it's
28:45
like, oh that the fact that Michigan has Michigan fans. Yeah, Michigan
28:52
media in some cases have positioned themselves as you know, the school that has
28:56
only failed to win national championship in the past, Soul because they were too
29:00
virginally pure, and you know, their football players all just want to go
29:04
back to reading Greek poetry and taking their best girl down to the shop to
29:07
get the malt shop to get a malted after the game. The fact that
29:12
you've positioned the program like that publicly, when that program gets you know,
29:21
caught in something like this, the response is going to be different than if
29:26
it's pick a program Tony Auburn, Auburn, Tennessee like whatever. Like I
29:33
mean, there was people did the lol thing over Tennessee because of the McDonald's
29:37
bag report and all that stuff. But you know, I don't think there
29:41
was, like I don't think that resonated quite in the way that this is
29:45
resonating with this situation. No, And it's because it's not just pay for
29:49
play or you know, a money guy. This is something completely different,
29:56
and it is a fan base that has you know, we'll tell you about
30:00
their moral superiority. And when I think about the Michiean fans, because we've
30:04
you know, I've communicated talked with them for many many years. I grew
30:08
up around them, you know, so like I have a pretty good relationship
30:11
with many of them. But if this was happening at any other school,
30:17
they wouldn't And this is you say, it's for any fan base if this
30:19
is happening at a different school. They're not defending any of these actions right
30:23
at all. They're not looking to defend their trying to figure out ways.
30:27
They're not saying you can't get mad as somebody for just being a good friend
30:32
and buying tickets for their friends. Like the levels of well, it's not
30:37
not really that bad if you think about it, because it's not illegal,
30:38
Like the FBI is not gonna do anything about it, so it's not bad.
30:41
They well and I think something else that's a little bit telling is I
30:47
have had a lot of people in my mentions Tony for the last sixteen to
30:52
eighteen hours, a lot of them. The number of people who have not
30:56
had you know, a block M avatar or they're you know, who are
31:00
defending defending this or poo pooing it in some way, it's like one hundred
31:04
percent are you know either location is Michigan or hashtag go blue in their bio
31:11
or a block M or you know, Jim Harmall's avatar. It's just it's
31:15
like no one else is no one else is out there on this island with
31:18
you. So you know that that at some point, you know, and
31:23
there have been times in the past when stuff like that has happened and you
31:29
you know, it has not all borne out, which is one of the
31:30
reasons I keep saying, you gotta be patient, You got to let the
31:33
process play out. But it does feel like every six hours it's like,
31:38
oh, this new thing has come out, this new thing has emerged,
31:41
and it's all sort of confirmation of what you're so, what you've seen before.
31:48
I wonder if it gets to a point where it's just all noise now
31:52
like, oh yeah, another video came out and then you just are we
31:53
ready to just move on? But I don't know that that's going to be
31:56
the case here, because there are going to be people that want to see
31:59
resolution now, and there's going to be information is going to continue to come
32:02
out. Videos, photos will continue to come out, and it's just going
32:07
to keep it alive for you know, who knows. And after every game,
32:12
Jim Harball is going to be asked about it. I can't talk about
32:14
it. I mean, then he talks about it on Monday. I can't
32:15
talk about it like this is I don't think this is going away. And
32:20
the CFP committee starts talking every Tuesday night, this coming a week from tonight,
32:25
and that is going to be asked of them about how do you view
32:30
Michigan. Because here's the thing. The Big ten can do nothing, the
32:34
NCAA can do nothing if a CFP doesn't want them in their rankings. I
32:37
don't think there's anything that says you have to put somebody in your rankings.
32:40
Yeah, I mean, I'm not expecting yet. No, I would be
32:45
floored if you know. I mean, because like the Coach's Poll probably still
32:50
does. This is how closely. I pay attention to the Coach's Pole,
32:52
but for a long time had a rule that if you were not eligible for
32:55
the postseason, you would not be eligible for the Coach's Pole. So,
33:00
you know, an Auburn team that was Bowl and eligible, could you know,
33:02
might have gone undefeated, but they couldn't go to a they weren't gonna
33:05
be in the Coach's Pole. I would be absolutely flabbergasted if that, you
33:13
know, if this was something that was used to hold Michigan out of the
33:16
top four. Do I think there might be people at the NCAA who would
33:22
be you know, or the College Football Playoff Committee who might be not completely
33:27
devastated to see Michigan drop a game or two and miss that conversation, miss
33:30
the college football playoffs. I think there probably would be people who just,
33:35
you know what, now it's not our problem, like I would be.
33:40
I would be flabbergasted if the you know, the first Playoff Committee thing comes
33:45
out and they're like, oh, no, we have them eighteenth, because
33:47
you know, did you see did you see the tweets? It's just a
33:52
guy with a friend and yeah, but I am I am interested to see
33:55
what they have to say. About that, because, like I said,
33:58
they will be asked about it, and if their stance is it's an ongoing
34:00
investigation, we can't speak on it. That's not true. You can't speak
34:04
on it because you're not the one being investigated. Right, What does the
34:07
committee think of this? Yeah, there's no way you can't answer that.
34:09
Run uh loney be careful or Jwan Howard might punch someone. It would not
34:17
be the first time if Michigan does have to you know, if that Michigan
34:22
does win a trophy this year and then has to give it back, it
34:25
would not be unprecedented. It's there's there's yeah, there's plenty of precedent for
34:30
Michigan having to give stuff back. Brian Dawes, are you guys ever going
34:36
to be sick of talking about the scandal? I will not tire of hearing
34:39
about it. You know, we see the traffic numbers on these videos,
34:44
so we recognize that the audience has not tired of hearing about them. And
34:47
you know, this is one of these things where we're not going to you
34:53
know, invent stuff to know about it. It's right now, we don't
34:57
have to right right right right now. We I mean, I waited a
35:01
full day before I wanted to do one of these shows because you want to
35:04
let this stuff kind of come out, and then you want to make sure
35:08
there's something new to talk about, because at some point, like we respect
35:14
the audience enough to recognize that if we if we have nothing and we're just
35:16
going to come out here and kind of tap dance for a while. Like
35:19
you guys aren't idiots. You recognize when there's nothing to talk about right now,
35:24
there's stuff coming out frequently enough that it's like, well, if something
35:28
new happens, there's level of interest in it, so we're going to talk
35:30
about it. If nothing happens, we're not going to. So we just
35:32
got to let this. You know, as stuff comes out, we will
35:35
continue to talk about it as there is, as the information available to us
35:38
merits yeah, well, and as we are doing shows information it can still
35:42
be coming out during this show the way things are coming right now, the
35:47
C the CT foster one, any idea when the evidence that is supposed to
35:52
be presented to the NC two A this week will be presented. No,
35:58
I mean this we that was and and this week was the phrasing in the
36:02
Famil story that came out on Monday for n ESPN dot com. So yeah,
36:07
whether that's them, I think that, you know, I don't think
36:13
they're mailing a VHS copy or anything like that, so I got to drop
36:16
it off at the DHL box. I would guess that there has been,
36:21
you know, electronic communication with a lot of this stuff, and not just
36:24
one school throw it in and all in a Google drive and send it over
36:28
like it's it's not that hard. And yeah, as you said, not
36:30
just this one school. I mean, there was eleven different schools cited just
36:35
in the Big Ten, and we know and Michigan is not one of them,
36:38
so that we know of Yeah, yeah, that's you know that that's
36:43
and and there was I think it was a Dan Wetzel report who said,
36:46
you know, also there were you know, ticket purchases involving non Big Ten
36:52
teams, you know, potential college future college football playoff opponents, you know,
36:57
potential opponents like Clemson's name. I think that got thrown in there at
37:00
some point. I mean it's it's uh, you know, I mean,
37:04
there's we'll see how the evidence all stacks up, but it feels like there
37:08
is potentially going to be a significant height to the pile. Yeah, it
37:13
doesn't seem like, boy, this none of this makes sense, Like it
37:15
all continues to make sense. Got one more because we're coming up on our
37:20
two o'clock get the heck out of the Woody deadline from trapland Music. Either
37:25
way, Harbaugh will be gone after this season. Not sure if the NFL
37:30
is clamoring for his services, but this is just the beginning. Yeah,
37:35
either way, Jim Harbaugh will be leaving. I do expect right now this
37:39
to be his last season, and I kind of felt that way before this,
37:44
and I feel even more strongly about it now. But I don't I
37:49
don't know that he's ever going to talk to the NCAA like this is gonna
37:52
be one of those things where you kick the can down you get a's.
37:55
Well, you know we got games this week and all we got the playoffs
37:58
this, you know, we got to make the day a game this week.
38:00
Tony now vacation, he's sick, got out recruiting. I saw Lincoln
38:05
Riley called in sick to his uh WE weekly presser, So I mean it
38:08
happens. It's going around, correct, Yes, Yeah, that's a whole
38:13
separate show, all right. So we'll we will wrap it up here.
38:16
It's uh, it's almost two o'clock on the East coast, so I don't
38:21
know by eight o'clock tonight, I'm sure there will be something else then.
38:22
But yeah, we'll see buck guys yet again tomorrow morning on for for Tuesday,
38:29
for Wednesday. Ye, it was the mid afternoon show. Yeah,
38:31
this is so the mid afternoon show would be recorded in the evening time.
38:36
I don't we're we're turning into the jokes that other people do about our podcast
38:39
schedules. Yes, yes, so, yeah, so we will. We
38:44
will continue to monitor this as further developments happened. We will also continue to
38:49
monitor, of course, the Ohio State buck Eyes and the Wisconsin Badgers.
38:52
There's a whole mess of other stuff to talk about with that pretty interesting game.
38:55
Actually got to talk to Ryan Day and Jim Knowles about a bunch of
38:58
stuff. I was thinking out, we'll do a few questions about this and
39:00
then we'll get onto that, and well, good news, we'll do another
39:05
show and get you all of that information a little little letter on this week.
39:07
But you can find all of that information. Tony did a great job
39:10
reporting all of it today at Bucket huddle dot com. Lots of information about
39:15
what Jim Knowles had to say, what Ryan Day had to say, Plenty
39:20
and plenty of stuff there. Big recruiting week as well. You can find
39:22
uh see, by the time this comes out on the podcast app, you
39:25
will have already seen the bonus episode that Mark Gibler and I did. It
39:30
has been a busy week, Tony. There's a lot of information to talk
39:31
about. Mark. Talk to Mark about some guys who were visiting O House
39:35
date last week, including a five star cornerback who is potentially trending towards Ohio
39:40
state. So a lot of interesting information on the recruiting side of things.
39:43
He's also written about that. Yes, he's got a recruiting update on the
39:45
front page right now, yep. So you can find that at bucket hudle
39:49
dot com as well. And then you want to talk about it with us,
39:51
Well, friends, I have a great news. We have the huddle
39:53
bardt Buckey huddle dot com members only great access to Sorry, the Huddle Board
40:00
presented by Jeff Ruby. Steakhouse wonderful Columbus based steakhouse. We like steaks Cincinnati,
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Louisville, Nashville. Yeah, yeah, but uh yeah, we uh
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we. It is a fantastic steakhouse, So make sure you check out Ruby
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Jeff Ruby. Also make sure you check out bucke huddle dot com. Lots
40:19
coverage the team, recruiting x's and o's, much much more, all at
40:22
bucke huddle dot com, YouTube dot com, slash buckey Huddle, and just
40:24
search bucket Huddle on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on. You can
40:28
find all of our shows there as well. That will do it for today.
40:30
Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll
40:32
talk to you tomorrow.