Latest / The Right Time with Bomani Jones / Why the New Bill WON’T fix College football + Lincoln Riley + Kalen DeBoer’s hot seat | 8.6
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Wave.
- 0:09Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time.
- 0:11Speaker 3: A wave original. My name is Beaumont Jones. Thanks for
- 0:15Speaker 3: listening wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for watching us
- 0:17Speaker 3: on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us
- 0:21Speaker 3: five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined
- 0:23Speaker 3: to believe you are a hater. It is that time
- 0:26Speaker 3: of week where we have a guest join us. Coming
- 0:28Speaker 3: to us live from scenic South Bend, Indiana. Check him
- 0:32Speaker 3: out at SI.com. Pat Forty, what's going on, man?
- 0:36Speaker 1: Hey, Beaumont. How are you? Yes, I was just under
- 0:40Speaker 1: the Golden Dome and looking at the gold plated new
- 0:44Speaker 1: facilities that the fighting Irish are toiling under.
- 0:48Speaker 3: So for people who don't know this, Notre Dame built
- 0:50Speaker 3: a hundred million dollar facility that has been all around
- 0:53Speaker 3: the internet.
- 0:54Speaker 2: Pat is there. And you say it's, it's just ungodly, huh?
- 0:58Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an absolute palace. It's unbelievable. I mean, every
- 1:02Speaker 1: possible modern convenience amenity that you can imagine for a
- 1:08Speaker 1: football program. And that's, You know, there are a lot
- 1:10Speaker 1: of them you can imagine these days. There's a lot
- 1:12Speaker 1: of places that have built their own campus Taj Mahal
- 1:16Speaker 1: for football. Now Notre Dame moves to the top of
- 1:19Speaker 1: the list. And the one thing that does tickle me
- 1:24Speaker 1: is they have a, you know, a light up sign
- 1:26Speaker 1: in there that says choose hard. This is not hard.
- 1:29Speaker 1: This is not hard living that they're doing. I mean,
- 1:32Speaker 1: they are well taken care of as players. It doesn't
- 1:36Speaker 1: mean they're not going to work hard and play hard,
- 1:38Speaker 1: but they are. pampered to a degree that I think
- 1:41Speaker 1: most NFL franchises would be impressed by.
- 1:44Speaker 3: Well, one of the things that I find interesting though,
- 1:47Speaker 3: is that in this new day and age, I feel
- 1:50Speaker 3: like we're going to see less of the super facilities
- 1:52Speaker 3: because the facilities used to be what you.
- 1:54Speaker 2: Did with the money.
- 1:55Speaker 3: When you couldn't give it to the players, you gave
- 1:57Speaker 3: them nice dorms and you gave them.
- 1:58Speaker 2: These absurd facilities.
- 2:00Speaker 3: Like this almost sounds like it's an antiquated idea of
- 2:02Speaker 3: how to get players.
- 2:04Speaker 1: Right?
- 2:04Speaker 3: No.
- 2:04Speaker 1: I mean, it's, it's interesting that, uh, There was a time, yes,
- 2:08Speaker 1: that you gave them a miniature golf course and a
- 2:10Speaker 1: water slide and a barbershop to distract from the fact
- 2:16Speaker 1: that you're not paying them. But now you're paying them
- 2:18Speaker 1: a lot. And so I think this is a trend
- 2:22Speaker 1: that's probably vanishing to a degree, but it's not gone away.
- 2:25Speaker 1: Notre Dame has this. USC is opening a brand new
- 2:29Speaker 1: state-of-the-art facility. So there's still some of that that's going on.
- 2:34Speaker 1: But for the most part, I mean, if you ask around,
- 2:37Speaker 1: the primary objective is pay the players, not gold plate
- 2:41Speaker 1: the facilities.
- 2:43Speaker 2: There's a USC, man.
- 2:44Speaker 3: That was perfectly good buyout money for when they're looking
- 2:47Speaker 3: for a coach next year.
- 2:48Speaker 1: A little pressure on Lincoln Riley, a little bit.
- 2:53Speaker 2: Oh, it is. It is amazing.
- 2:55Speaker 3: And we're going to get to the Protect College Sports Act.
- 2:57Speaker 1: In a minute.
- 2:57Speaker 3: But while we're here on this, Lincoln Riley, I can't
- 3:01Speaker 3: think of anybody that's coming into this season with more
- 3:04Speaker 3: obvious pressure on them.
- 3:05Speaker 2: And it's so interesting because he.
- 3:07Speaker 3: Made what I thought was a reasonable calculation that, oh,
- 3:11Speaker 3: you where it stood in the Big 12, everything else.
- 3:14Speaker 1: I can't remember.
- 3:15Speaker 2: The SEC move had already been determined, but.
- 3:17Speaker 3: He thought that it was a better play for him
- 3:20Speaker 3: to go to USC. But as that was happening, all
- 3:23Speaker 3: the OU fans were like, you guys can have him
- 3:26Speaker 3: if you want him.
- 3:26Speaker 2: We're not really like, we don't care that much about
- 3:29Speaker 2: keeping him.
- 3:30Speaker 3: And now Oklahoma is clearly in a more solid position,
- 3:34Speaker 3: I think, that we would argue than USC is. And
- 3:37Speaker 3: Caleb Williams has been gone a long time now, and
- 3:39Speaker 3: that dude is clearly coaching for his job.
- 3:42Speaker 1: No doubt about it. This is make or break for him. Although,
- 3:45Speaker 1: you know, again, the buyout would be astronomical because they
- 3:48Speaker 1: gave him so much money to begin with. But I
- 3:51Speaker 1: don't know whether buyouts even matter anymore in the economics
- 3:54Speaker 1: of current college athletics.
- 3:57Speaker 2: But at some point, that's going to have to stop, right?
- 3:59Speaker 3: Just giving everybody the gazillion dollar buyout in order to
- 4:01Speaker 3: make them feel loved.
- 4:03Speaker 1: You'd think you hear that. But then does it go away? Really?
- 4:07Speaker 1: You know, I've I've had a lot of people say
- 4:09Speaker 1: that that when it comes down to competing to get
- 4:11Speaker 1: a coach like Lane Kiffin, If it's between you and
- 4:14Speaker 1: another school, you'll go ahead and overpay him and overbuy
- 4:18Speaker 1: out him, so to speak. But, yeah, Lincoln Riley's up
- 4:22Speaker 1: against it, no doubt about it. He came in. There
- 4:24Speaker 1: was no expectation that five years in they would be
- 4:29Speaker 1: at a point where you're hoping to be a top
- 4:32Speaker 1: 15 program. They did have the Caleb Williams moment come
- 4:38Speaker 1: and go without it resulting in a playoff bid. And now,
- 4:42Speaker 1: even though it's a bigger playoff, it's still hard to
- 4:44Speaker 1: get in there in a tougher conference. That's one thing
- 4:46Speaker 1: that's pretty funny. It was kind of the okey-doke of,
- 4:50Speaker 1: all right, I'm not going to go to the SEC. Oh,
- 4:52Speaker 1: but wait, you are going to go to the Big
- 4:54Speaker 1: Ten with USC as opposed to potentially being the dominant
- 4:58Speaker 1: program in a Pac-12 that doesn't exist. So they've got
- 5:02Speaker 1: to get it done this season. And they feel confident
- 5:07Speaker 1: that they would. I was at Big Ten media days.
- 5:09Speaker 1: Lincoln Riley was as relaxed and confident as I've ever
- 5:12Speaker 1: seen him at that event. But he needs to back
- 5:15Speaker 1: it up now. They got to actually do it.
- 5:17Speaker 3: You know, and the Big Ten brings us, I think,
- 5:19Speaker 3: in a good way to talking about the Protect College
- 5:22Speaker 3: Sports Act. Because one thing that is interesting is how
- 5:24Speaker 3: far removed we are now from 20 years ago where
- 5:29Speaker 3: the Big Ten was not just a clear step below
- 5:33Speaker 3: the SEC. I would argue at that point, the Big
- 5:36Speaker 3: Ten was a step below the Big 12 in terms
- 5:38Speaker 3: of like actual, you know, the level of competition. You
- 5:41Speaker 3: can make arguments at points that the then Pac-10 was superior.
- 5:45Speaker 2: Now the Big Ten has won three straight championships.
- 5:48Speaker 3: I do buy the idea that the SEC probably still
- 5:52Speaker 3: has better depth. However, we live in a world where
- 5:54Speaker 3: Indiana won a national championship. So what exactly does that mean?
- 5:58Speaker 3: But I want to walk through how we got to
- 6:00Speaker 3: where we are with the Protect College Sports Act because
- 6:03Speaker 3: we started with the SCORE Act, which, I mean, these
- 6:09Speaker 3: acts seem pretty good for the programs, don't seem very
- 6:12Speaker 3: good for the players, but that one got struck down.
- 6:16Speaker 3: We then wound up with the current act, which intends
- 6:18Speaker 3: to do things like limit transfers, try to put a
- 6:20Speaker 3: salary cap in. Well, not a salary because they're not employees.
- 6:25Speaker 3: That's the only way that works, right? Like some cap
- 6:27Speaker 3: on expenditure. A few other things there in place. But
- 6:31Speaker 3: what wound up happening with this act and why it
- 6:34Speaker 3: got held up for a while was the SEC and
- 6:36Speaker 3: Big Ten schools didn't want it, which thereby meant that
- 6:39Speaker 3: the congresspeople.
- 6:41Speaker 2: From their states would not necessarily vote for it.
- 6:44Speaker 3: Now it seems that they rallied to get the votes
- 6:46Speaker 3: because those conferences did more things. But I don't think
- 6:49Speaker 3: people understand what is going on with the bill itself.
- 6:53Speaker 3: Could you give an insight as to what this bill
- 6:56Speaker 3: is supposed to do?
- 6:58Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's a lot. It is way too
- 7:02Speaker 1: big a bill. It's a fat bill as opposed to
- 7:04Speaker 1: a skinny bill. It is trying to appease all people
- 7:07Speaker 1: with all things. And that's where a lot of the
- 7:09Speaker 1: issues have arisen here. But in terms of the SEC
- 7:15Speaker 1: and Big Ten getting on board with it, antithetically to
- 7:21Speaker 1: a degree, was because they held out for a hard
- 7:24Speaker 1: salary cap. you may say, well, those are the two
- 7:27Speaker 1: richest conferences. Why do they care how much the salary
- 7:30Speaker 1: cap is? It's like the Yankees and the Dodgers saying, oh,
- 7:33Speaker 1: we need a firm cap in baseball when you're the
- 7:37Speaker 1: two richest. But the way that they have it worked
- 7:41Speaker 1: out now is a, and we're going to get into
- 7:45Speaker 1: the weeds here to a degree, a lot of numbers
- 7:47Speaker 1: and stuff, but $ 21. 3 million is the revenue sharing cap.
- 7:51Speaker 1: As you said, not salary, because we can't have a
- 7:54Speaker 1: salary with no employees. but the revenue sharing cap for athletes.
- 7:59Speaker 1: But there's also now a $ 23 million retention cap that's
- 8:05Speaker 1: on top of that. So now we're at 44, right?
- 8:09Speaker 1: And then there is a $ 5 million pool that goes
- 8:15Speaker 1: to Olympic sports slash women's sports. So we're at 48.8
- 8:20Speaker 1: million is roughly the math. Now, who can afford that?
- 8:25Speaker 1: Everybody in the SEC and the Big Ten, right? Pretty much.
- 8:27Speaker 1: I mean, maybe Mississippi State and Purdue need to, you know,
- 8:31Speaker 1: stretch some dollars or whatever. Who can't? Pretty much everybody else,
- 8:35Speaker 1: unless your name is Clemson, Florida State, Miami, you know,
- 8:39Speaker 1: maybe a North Carolina. But you are still, you are
- 8:42Speaker 1: creating a cap that is comfortable for you and uncomfortable
- 8:46Speaker 1: for those that aren't in those two leagues. So it's
- 8:49Speaker 1: a sweet spot for the SEC and the Big Ten
- 8:52Speaker 1: to get into from a rev share cap. Now, there's
- 8:55Speaker 1: 9 million other things that are part of this bill,
- 8:57Speaker 1: but that's what got the SEC and the Big Ten
- 9:00Speaker 1: on board with it.
- 9:02Speaker 3: Now, when we say a retention fund, is that a
- 9:05Speaker 3: retention of players that are currently on rosters to stop
- 9:07Speaker 3: them from transferring?
- 9:09Speaker 1: Correct, yes. That's what the retention fund is. One of
- 9:14Speaker 1: the ways to slow down the transferring is have enough
- 9:19Speaker 1: money on hand to keep the players that you want
- 9:21Speaker 1: to keep.
- 9:22Speaker 3: Right.
- 9:23Speaker 2: And they also want to cap transfers.
- 9:26Speaker 3: That's a big part of this, which is where this
- 9:27Speaker 3: gets tricky because capping transfers has been basically determined a
- 9:32Speaker 3: restriction of trade by the courts throughout all of this
- 9:35Speaker 3: to stop, to put it in place to where the
- 9:38Speaker 3: guys cannot transfer. But there's also been an attempt to
- 9:41Speaker 3: try to get some form of an antitrust exemption involved
- 9:44Speaker 3: in this.
- 9:44Speaker 2: That would then allow you.
- 9:46Speaker 3: To cap the transfers and handcuff the players, which you're
- 9:48Speaker 3: going to find is a common theme in this bill.
- 9:50Speaker 3: There's a lot of handcuffing the players and players not
- 9:53Speaker 3: having an advocacy group that sits at this table and
- 9:56Speaker 3: has real position. There's lobbying being done by some people,
- 9:59Speaker 3: but they don't really have much say so. And I
- 10:01Speaker 3: think a very important detail is if teams go over
- 10:06Speaker 3: this amount in spending, it's not like the old days
- 10:10Speaker 3: where the Keystone cops show up. Technically, it's the feds
- 10:15Speaker 3: that show up if you go over the spending cap.
- 10:19Speaker 1: Yeah, right. I mean, it's not NCAA enforcement where, in theory,
- 10:25Speaker 1: it's going to take three years to find out that
- 10:28Speaker 1: somebody went over the cap by $ 28 and we're going
- 10:31Speaker 1: to hand down a suspension or whatever there. This will
- 10:35Speaker 1: be different. They're trying to empower the College Sports Commission,
- 10:40Speaker 1: which was created to be the enforcement arm of the
- 10:44Speaker 1: salary cap. That so far has worked about as well
- 10:48Speaker 1: as every other attempt to enforce the rules in college sports.
- 10:50Speaker 1: They haven't really done much of anything. A few public
- 10:54Speaker 1: victories they can look at, a few sanctions that matter.
- 10:58Speaker 1: So that's why we got to this point. Whether there
- 11:02Speaker 1: really can be adequate enforcement or not, we'll see. But
- 11:06Speaker 1: you are 100% correct that a lot of these rules
- 11:11Speaker 1: that are put in place are to stop these crazy
- 11:15Speaker 1: kids from getting all that dang money and being allowed
- 11:19Speaker 1: to move around. And we need to go back to
- 11:21Speaker 1: the days where there's a little more control out there.
- 11:23Speaker 1: And there's no doubt that that's part of this. And yeah,
- 11:27Speaker 1: the athletes, who hasn't been present in any of these discussions?
- 11:30Speaker 1: The athletes or any advocacy group on their behalf. And
- 11:33Speaker 1: the whole thing is constructed out in a way that
- 11:39Speaker 1: gives the athletes something but still prevents them from having
- 11:43Speaker 1: employment status, prevents them from having a union, and a
- 11:47Speaker 1: lot of other of the powers that exist in actual
- 11:50Speaker 1: professional sports.
- 11:52Speaker 3: And by the way, for people who have questions about
- 11:54Speaker 3: the College Sports Commission, you may have seen this news.
- 11:57Speaker 3: They're the clowns who just suspended a player at Tennessee
- 12:02Speaker 3: for two or three games for four hundred dollars that
- 12:05Speaker 3: he got for a plane ticket when he was draft eligible.
- 12:09Speaker 3: And they won't just let him pay back the four
- 12:11Speaker 3: hundred dollars like that's kicking it old school. Like it's
- 12:14Speaker 3: our friendly reminder when we go back and look at
- 12:15Speaker 3: what the dollar amounts were that they used to end
- 12:17Speaker 3: people's careers over.
- 12:19Speaker 2: It really could be over something like $ 400.
- 12:20Speaker 3: And they really told this guy, yeah, you're going to
- 12:22Speaker 3: be down for a couple of games.
- 12:24Speaker 1: No, no, no.
- 12:24Speaker 3: You can't pay it back. The ultimate, I have to
- 12:27Speaker 3: justify my existence. But in all this money thrown around,
- 12:31Speaker 3: somebody popped up over $ 400.
- 12:34Speaker 1: That's amazing. Like it was old school, like a nostalgic almost,
- 12:37Speaker 1: you know, that like, oh, they can still actually nuke
- 12:40Speaker 1: somebody for something crazy. Relatively picky. Everybody's reaction was, God,
- 12:43Speaker 1: I didn't think there were any rules on what anybody
- 12:45Speaker 1: could accept in terms of payment. It was pretty shocking
- 12:50Speaker 1: to see. Again, I still don't fully understand the delineation there,
- 12:55Speaker 1: but I guess it was a reminder there are still
- 12:58Speaker 1: people out there trying to enforce arcane, arbitrary, confusing, contradictory rules.
- 13:07Speaker 3: Now, this bill would need basically 60 votes to be
- 13:11Speaker 3: sure to get through the Senate, then it has to
- 13:12Speaker 3: go to the House, and the House is an unwieldy situation.
- 13:16Speaker 3: None of this is promised, and something very interesting When
- 13:20Speaker 3: the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP advocated for players
- 13:26Speaker 3: to boycott Southern schools, something that was very interesting was
- 13:29Speaker 3: that the SCORE Act, which was at Congress at the time,
- 13:33Speaker 3: that wound up dying because the CBC had promised that
- 13:36Speaker 3: its membership would vote for that bill, which is highly
- 13:41Speaker 3: detrimental to players. This bill is also highly detrimental to players.
- 13:45Speaker 3: But at the same time that the CBC was asking
- 13:47Speaker 3: these players to make a sacrifice, The CBC was selling
- 13:50Speaker 3: them out. However, I bring that up to say if
- 13:53Speaker 3: they weren't going to vote for the SCORE Act because
- 13:55Speaker 3: they were waiting for changes in the Voting Rights Act
- 13:57Speaker 3: and things to take place, then that also means that
- 14:00Speaker 3: they're not going to vote for this act. At least
- 14:02Speaker 3: one would think in principle, which actually may wind up
- 14:06Speaker 3: being the hold up on the whole thing, because this
- 14:08Speaker 3: thing doesn't actually have the votes in. It offends a
- 14:11Speaker 3: lot of Republicans. I think that's a part that people
- 14:13Speaker 3: don't quite get. The noted advocate of the working man,
- 14:18Speaker 3: Byron Donalds in Florida, who's running for governor, he was
- 14:22Speaker 3: a key opponent of it. Not a member of the
- 14:24Speaker 3: Congressional Black Caucus. He's just black and congressional. But it
- 14:27Speaker 3: was basically as a restriction of trade situation. So a
- 14:31Speaker 3: lot of far, I don't want to say far right
- 14:34Speaker 3: wing groups, that's not far, but like libertarian free market
- 14:37Speaker 3: type groups, a lot of them are like, nah, nah, nah, man,
- 14:40Speaker 3: this doesn't.
- 14:41Speaker 2: Work for us at all.
- 14:42Speaker 3: We don't think this is going to make sure I
- 14:43Speaker 3: get the name right on one of these organizations. But
- 14:48Speaker 3: it's the American Economic Liberty Project. They're not riding with this.
- 14:53Speaker 3: This bill isn't promised, but what does seem clear, you
- 14:56Speaker 3: correct me if I'm wrong, it's not that the SEC
- 14:59Speaker 3: and Big Ten did not feel like this was going
- 15:02Speaker 3: to be good for college football or college sports. They
- 15:04Speaker 3: didn't think it was going to be good for them.
- 15:06Speaker 3: The hegemony that they have established, which is, it's really crazy.
- 15:10Speaker 3: It's really two conferences and everybody else, but that hegemony,
- 15:13Speaker 3: they are dug in on that.
- 15:15Speaker 1: Absolutely. No, they're not dug in over broad-based concerns about
- 15:21Speaker 1: the health of college sports, they're dug in over their
- 15:24Speaker 1: ability to continue to dominate everything economically and competitively. So
- 15:29Speaker 1: you're 100% right about that. And it has. The bill
- 15:34Speaker 1: has created some strange bedfellows to your point where you've
- 15:39Speaker 1: got some people on both sides of the aisle who
- 15:42Speaker 1: really like it. You've got some people on both sides
- 15:44Speaker 1: of the aisle who really hate it. You've got some
- 15:47Speaker 1: advocacy and lobbying groups that would never see eye to
- 15:50Speaker 1: eye on almost anything who may lock arms on this.
- 15:54Speaker 1: And yeah, the chances of this thing still passing are,
- 15:58Speaker 1: I mean, it's by no means a done deal. And
- 16:00Speaker 1: that is with Trump and a lot of, you know,
- 16:05Speaker 1: influential senators behind this and then a lot of heavyweight
- 16:09Speaker 1: people in college athletics pushing this. They may get it
- 16:12Speaker 1: through the Senate. The timing is really difficult. We are
- 16:17Speaker 1: sitting here Wednesday morning, East Coast time, and they're pushing
- 16:23Speaker 1: hard to get this thing to a vote this week
- 16:26Speaker 1: in the Senate. But if it doesn't happen this week,
- 16:28Speaker 1: gets kicked to September, he's like, oh, well, then we
- 16:31Speaker 1: get in a re-election cycle and that's going to hurt
- 16:33Speaker 1: the chances of it. But even if they get it done,
- 16:35Speaker 1: like if they get this thing voted on by like Saturday,
- 16:38Speaker 1: if everybody agrees to stay in session in the Senate
- 16:40Speaker 1: and vote Saturday, then it's got to go to the House.
- 16:43Speaker 1: And as you said, a whole new set of complications there,
- 16:46Speaker 1: a whole new set of– people who will want to
- 16:48Speaker 1: put their fingerprints on this thing, and there may be
- 16:51Speaker 1: a lot of people that don't like it and just say, no,
- 16:54Speaker 1: never mind. And we will have gone through this incredible
- 16:56Speaker 1: cycle of listening to Greg Sankey, Tony Petitti, Charlie Baker,
- 17:02Speaker 1: Nick Saban, so on and so forth, say, we've got
- 17:05Speaker 1: to have this, we've got to have this, and we
- 17:07Speaker 1: don't get it. And then it's like, why did you
- 17:09Speaker 1: waste all our time and money on this?
- 17:12Speaker 3: And I think one of the dangers or one of
- 17:15Speaker 3: the things that's worth considering here And I don't know
- 17:17Speaker 3: if you've experienced this, but this has always been my experience.
- 17:20Speaker 2: The less familiar people are.
- 17:22Speaker 3: With college sports when you try to explain it to them,
- 17:25Speaker 3: the more insane they find it.
- 17:28Speaker 1: Right?
- 17:28Speaker 2: They're like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Like, if
- 17:29Speaker 2: you try to explain this whole system to somebody from
- 17:31Speaker 2: another country, Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So
- 17:34Speaker 2: they don't get paid.
- 17:35Speaker 3: Like, you know, what he's been saying, wait, wait, wait, wait.
- 17:38Speaker 2: Oh, oh, slow down, buddy. Slow down, buddy.
- 17:40Speaker 3: Like the charm of this is that it doesn't really
- 17:43Speaker 3: make sense. Like the good and the bad of it
- 17:45Speaker 3: always comes down to the fact that it doesn't make sense.
- 17:48Speaker 3: And now they've got to sell this to a lot
- 17:49Speaker 3: of people to whom this doesn't this doesn't matter.
- 17:52Speaker 2: There are a lot of states that don't even have
- 17:53Speaker 2: these games.
- 17:54Speaker 3: Like when you really stop and think about it, how
- 17:56Speaker 3: many places this does not really matter to them. But
- 17:59Speaker 3: this is what the NCAA and all the people around
- 18:02Speaker 3: it have wanted is for somebody else to solve their problems.
- 18:06Speaker 3: Cody Campbell, the bankroll at Texas Tech, has put all
- 18:09Speaker 3: this money in so that somebody else who kind of
- 18:12Speaker 3: knows less than these people do about their own shit
- 18:14Speaker 3: could save them. And it's in part, correct me if
- 18:18Speaker 3: I'm wrong, because nobody will just follow their own rules.
- 18:23Speaker 2: Like they have rules. They could just follow them.
- 18:26Speaker 1: If you just took everything you just said, condensed that,
- 18:30Speaker 1: like put that on an inscription somewhere and say, that's
- 18:33Speaker 1: college sports. It makes no sense. Nobody has any interest
- 18:37Speaker 1: in playing by the rules. Nobody wants to work together. Oh,
- 18:41Speaker 1: but God, somebody come please save us because we love
- 18:43Speaker 1: the games. We love the actual sport. Right. And you
- 18:47Speaker 1: said you bring in people from overseas or something and
- 18:50Speaker 1: you try to explain this to them and you take
- 18:52Speaker 1: them to Boulder, Colorado and say there's this giant wild animal.
- 18:55Speaker 1: It's going to run around the field and 60,000 people
- 18:58Speaker 1: are going to go crazy and then they're going to
- 19:00Speaker 1: play this sport and everybody's going to go crazy. And then,
- 19:04Speaker 1: you know, at LSU, there's a live tiger outside the
- 19:09Speaker 1: stadium and people love it. But then there's all these
- 19:13Speaker 1: structural problems that make no sense. are not employees, even
- 19:18Speaker 1: though they should be employees. We're trying to thread this
- 19:21Speaker 1: needle where we fake that there is some level of
- 19:24Speaker 1: amateurism or collegiality or academics involved here. But we can't
- 19:31Speaker 1: really make it work, so we need Congress to come
- 19:33Speaker 1: in and fix this for us. And who wants Congress
- 19:35Speaker 1: to fix anything because they're not good at it? That's
- 19:37Speaker 1: where we are.
- 19:39Speaker 3: All these people who, in their voting activities, swear that
- 19:42Speaker 3: they want small government.
- 19:44Speaker 1: Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Right?
- 19:46Speaker 3: Like that's a big part of this. Nobody likes the government.
- 19:50Speaker 3: until they need something.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Right?
- 19:53Speaker 2: It's kind of like the cops.
- 19:54Speaker 3: I ain't the biggest fan of the cops, but if
- 19:55Speaker 3: you break in my car, guess who I'm calling?
- 19:59Speaker 2: Like, now the time has come. And so.
- 20:03Speaker 2: I look at how.
- 20:04Speaker 3: All of this goes, and I do not think that
- 20:07Speaker 3: this bill itself is going to pass.
- 20:11Speaker 2: But what's going to happen if it doesn't?
- 20:15Speaker 1: I don't know. Honestly, I mean, we go back to
- 20:19Speaker 1: the district court in Colorado, the district court in Tennessee,
- 20:23Speaker 1: the district court in West Virginia deciding how everything goes.
- 20:27Speaker 1: And what they generally decide is the NCAA rules are illegal.
- 20:31Speaker 1: screw them, throw it out. Players can go where they want.
- 20:35Speaker 1: They can get paid what they want. Everybody will break
- 20:39Speaker 1: the rules on salary cap. And then everybody else will
- 20:44Speaker 1: complain about it. And every single coach in America will
- 20:46Speaker 1: say how unfair it is. And a lot of the
- 20:48Speaker 1: people that grew up loving college sports a certain way
- 20:51Speaker 1: will say, I don't recognize this product. But they'll still
- 20:54Speaker 1: go to the games and they'll still watch the games.
- 20:56Speaker 1: I mean, I think that, I think it's almost unbreakable.
- 21:00Speaker 1: It's hard. as the leadership has tried to break it,
- 21:04Speaker 1: to ruin college football and college sports in general, I
- 21:08Speaker 1: kind of think it's unbreakable. As long as Alabama still
- 21:12Speaker 1: runs out in Bryant-Denny Stadium and they're wearing those uniforms
- 21:15Speaker 1: and they're playing that fight song, people will still go.
- 21:20Speaker 1: I think that the University of Texas, if they're still
- 21:23Speaker 1: in Daryl K. Royal Stadium and Bevo is on the sideline,
- 21:28Speaker 1: and the eyes of Texas is playing, and they're wearing
- 21:30Speaker 1: those uniforms. You can't break it. You can't screw it up.
- 21:35Speaker 1: As much as people who have been paid a sultan's
- 21:38Speaker 1: fee to oversee it have screwed it up, it's unbreakable.
- 21:43Speaker 3: Now, coming up next, we will talk about the latest
- 21:45Speaker 3: example of kind of sort of chaos, which is it
- 21:48Speaker 3: feels like you can play college sports as long as
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- 25:59Speaker 3: All right, we are back with our man Pat Forty.
- 26:05Speaker 3: We had a court decision. The NCAA passed a rule
- 26:08Speaker 3: that said, well, now, guys can play five years eligibility.
- 26:12Speaker 3: Used to be you had five years to play four, right?
- 26:13Speaker 3: You have a red shirt year thrown in there. Now
- 26:16Speaker 3: it is a widespread five years all the way across
- 26:19Speaker 3: the board. We saw a lawsuit from players whose eligibility
- 26:23Speaker 3: ended last year. And they basically said, it's kind of
- 26:26Speaker 3: arbitrary that we don't get to play if it's five years.
- 26:29Speaker 3: And so now we have a circumstance, correct me if
- 26:31Speaker 3: I'm wrong here, where these guys who played last year,
- 26:33Speaker 3: if they want.
- 26:34Speaker 2: To, can come get on another football team.
- 26:36Speaker 3: Just jump on board, and guys that have scholarships now,
- 26:39Speaker 3: you better hold on tight because there might be some
- 26:41Speaker 3: grown man coming to take your gig.
- 26:45Speaker 1: Early August, camps have opened, and there are absolutely players
- 26:49Speaker 1: who are coming back who thought they were done. They're like, hey,
- 26:51Speaker 1: you know what? I'm not on an NFL roster. I'm available.
- 26:56Speaker 1: Indiana is believed to be adding three guys, a couple
- 26:59Speaker 1: of them who were key players from last year. back
- 27:02Speaker 1: onto this year's team because they weren't on an NFL
- 27:04Speaker 1: team and they can, according to this Colorado district court ruling.
- 27:09Speaker 1: So yeah, it's not complete total anarchy where like, if
- 27:15Speaker 1: you weren't in the portal before, you can't just go anywhere. Okay.
- 27:19Speaker 1: If you're, if you're, you thought your college career ended
- 27:22Speaker 1: last year and all of a sudden now you've been
- 27:24Speaker 1: granted this next year. It's not like you can just
- 27:28Speaker 1: go from Oregon to Penn state, Like that, and just
- 27:33Speaker 1: snap your fingers. But it does potentially bring back in
- 27:36Speaker 1: a whole bunch of guys, as you said, older players
- 27:42Speaker 1: who thought they were done 22, 23, back into the workforce,
- 27:47Speaker 1: back onto the rosters. And yeah, if you were an
- 27:50Speaker 1: 18-year-old who came in and you no longer have a
- 27:53Speaker 1: red shirt year, you've got five years to play, you
- 27:56Speaker 1: have renewed competition for playing time within your own roster.
- 28:02Speaker 1: And the schools that it was really funny, actually, in July,
- 28:06Speaker 1: listening to all the coaches say, you know, at least
- 28:08Speaker 1: we have roster stability. We didn't have the spring portal.
- 28:12Speaker 1: We knew who we had as of last January. Oh,
- 28:16Speaker 1: except now we may have a whole bunch of guys
- 28:18Speaker 1: coming back in August. And so we are back in
- 28:22Speaker 1: a churn cycle in a sport that never seems to
- 28:24Speaker 1: stop churning.
- 28:26Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think our buddy Jeff Goodman had taken
- 28:29Speaker 3: a quote from one coach whose response to this was,
- 28:31Speaker 3: now that this has happened, I'm going to have to
- 28:33Speaker 3: screw over some guy on my team going to recruit
- 28:37Speaker 3: these other guys.
- 28:37Speaker 2: And it's like, well, nobody said you had to do that, buddy.
- 28:40Speaker 1: No, that's the other thing. And that's, look, coaches, they're
- 28:43Speaker 1: the biggest whiners on the planet. Sometimes they have a
- 28:47Speaker 1: reason to whine, but a lot of times they don't.
- 28:49Speaker 1: And this one kills me. It's like, you can say no.
- 28:53Speaker 1: You can say, no, we're good. We're set here. Nobody
- 28:56Speaker 1: says you have to go out and take back these
- 28:58Speaker 1: players or take in different players. If you feel like
- 29:02Speaker 1: your team's good enough, get them out there and quit
- 29:05Speaker 1: complaining about it. It's amazing the level of alleged powerlessness
- 29:11Speaker 1: these coaches act like they have in a free marketplace.
- 29:15Speaker 2: Now, what do you think?
- 29:17Speaker 3: In all of this is the fate of the ACC
- 29:21Speaker 3: and Big 12 schools. I feel like, you correct me
- 29:24Speaker 3: if I'm wrong, we've got this top two, and then
- 29:26Speaker 3: in terms of what is possible revenue-wise, I feel like
- 29:28Speaker 3: the ACC is a step down because the ACC has
- 29:31Speaker 3: great real estate, if nothing else. And then the Big 12,
- 29:34Speaker 3: which really is what used to be the Big 12,
- 29:36Speaker 3: plus what used to be the Pac-12, together, feels like
- 29:39Speaker 3: just this weird cobbled together relationship of inconvenience that also
- 29:44Speaker 3: actually has 16 schools.
- 29:46Speaker 2: But what happens to them?
- 29:48Speaker 3: Because this part of what this bill is supposed to
- 29:51Speaker 3: do is make it impossible for a Super League to start,
- 29:55Speaker 3: which kind of saved these other two conferences. But none
- 29:57Speaker 3: of us believe that they're trafficking in the same space.
- 30:01Speaker 1: Right. I mean, there's no doubt that the difference in
- 30:04Speaker 1: revenue and ability to pay players is definitely different in
- 30:10Speaker 1: two leagues from anywhere else. And, you know, I hated
- 30:15Speaker 1: the demise of the Pac-12. I like a bigger, broader,
- 30:20Speaker 1: more inclusive nation when it comes to competition. But if
- 30:24Speaker 1: you look at the AFCA preseason coaches poll, which came out,
- 30:28Speaker 1: I think, Tuesday, I The top 11 teams, nine of
- 30:34Speaker 1: them are Big Ten or SEC. The two that aren't
- 30:38Speaker 1: are Notre Dame and Miami, two places that have a
- 30:42Speaker 1: ton of money and are spending it freely. Then the
- 30:46Speaker 1: next one outside of that top 11 is Texas Tech,
- 30:49Speaker 1: which has broken the model basically by spending Cody Campbell's
- 30:54Speaker 1: billionaire fortune on football. So I mean, the power schools
- 31:00Speaker 1: are the power schools, and they are in those conferences,
- 31:02Speaker 1: and it really, I think, is going to be difficult
- 31:06Speaker 1: to unseat that. Notre Dame is its own special animal.
- 31:10Speaker 1: Miami is an outlier that spends like it's in the SEC,
- 31:15Speaker 1: even if it's not. And then Texas Tech, as I said,
- 31:18Speaker 1: is willing to try to disrupt everything. So I don't
- 31:23Speaker 1: like the way the landscape is, but it's hard to
- 31:26Speaker 1: say that's going to change any time. in the near future.
- 31:30Speaker 2: How do you think this goes in the end for
- 31:32Speaker 2: Notre Dame?
- 31:32Speaker 3: Cause that's always been like the interesting question with all
- 31:35Speaker 3: these changes has always been one, what happens to basketball schools, right?
- 31:39Speaker 3: We haven't even talked about like the big, big East,
- 31:41Speaker 3: like Villanova type of schools, but then there's also the
- 31:44Speaker 3: unicorn that is Notre Dame.
- 31:47Speaker 1: Right. And the thing with, you know, Notre Dame obviously is,
- 31:53Speaker 1: will do anything to protect its independent status and, I
- 31:56Speaker 1: don't blame them. It's a distinguishing characteristic. It's part of
- 31:59Speaker 1: them being able to say, look how special we are.
- 32:02Speaker 1: Look how different we are. It's interesting. One thing that happened,
- 32:08Speaker 1: another thing that happened this week, starting in 2030, Notre
- 32:11Speaker 1: Dame and USC are going to resume their rivalry, which
- 32:14Speaker 1: is off 2026 through 2029, and a terrible side effect
- 32:19Speaker 1: of the realignment of college sports. It's coming back, but
- 32:23Speaker 1: it's coming back on USC's terms. It's coming back as
- 32:27Speaker 1: the season opener in 2030 and 31 and will be
- 32:30Speaker 1: played in the first three weeks in 32 and 33. Whereas,
- 32:35Speaker 1: you know, for time immemorial, the game was mid-October in
- 32:39Speaker 1: South Bend, end of the season in Los Angeles. USC
- 32:45Speaker 1: didn't want that because, hey, they've got to travel to
- 32:46Speaker 1: the Midwest two or three times a year and they
- 32:48Speaker 1: didn't want to throw another trip in there to go
- 32:50Speaker 1: to Notre Dame. So they said, forget it. And Notre
- 32:54Speaker 1: Dame basically had to say, OK, we'll go along with
- 32:57Speaker 1: you because we're having a hard time scheduling good games now.
- 33:00Speaker 1: There's a lot of places where the SEC has added
- 33:03Speaker 1: a ninth conference game. So that lessens the interest in
- 33:06Speaker 1: playing a Notre Dame. The Big Ten schools are saying, look,
- 33:10Speaker 1: our league's now a mauler. Do we really need to
- 33:12Speaker 1: play Notre Dame? So Notre Dame needs those ACC games
- 33:16Speaker 1: they play every year. But they don't have a lot
- 33:19Speaker 1: of other marquee opponents out there. And they need USC
- 33:23Speaker 1: on their schedule more than USC needs Notre Dame. So
- 33:26Speaker 1: that's one area where that independent status, as great as
- 33:30Speaker 1: it's been, as much of a distinguishing characteristic as it is,
- 33:35Speaker 1: it's kind of hemming them in from a scheduling standpoint.
- 33:40Speaker 3: Yeah, as much as people resent the role of Notre Dame,
- 33:45Speaker 3: things are a little better with them in that sort
- 33:47Speaker 3: of weird old place. And for schools, it was great.
- 33:49Speaker 3: Cause it was like, look, you're scheduling Notre Dame. You're
- 33:50Speaker 3: going to get a sellout. Like that was the biggest thing.
- 33:52Speaker 3: If we get you on the board, they, that half
- 33:55Speaker 3: in half out deal they have with the ACC was
- 33:57Speaker 3: great until it wasn't great.
- 34:00Speaker 1: Right.
- 34:01Speaker 3: Like it, it's amazing how much of this five years
- 34:03Speaker 3: ago just seemed perfectly reasonable.
- 34:04Speaker 2: And now it just, that seems like the stone ages
- 34:06Speaker 2: at this point.
- 34:08Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 34:08Speaker 1: I mean, you know, look, I get, Again, if you're
- 34:10Speaker 1: the ACC, and yes, if you're Wake Forest and Notre
- 34:13Speaker 1: Dame's coming to town, awesome. If you are Boston College,
- 34:16Speaker 1: bring it on. You're thrilled to have that game. But
- 34:19Speaker 1: it does create some complications for them. It adds losses
- 34:23Speaker 1: for most of the teams they're going to play. That
- 34:26Speaker 1: further diminishes your chances of getting into the college football playoff.
- 34:32Speaker 1: Notre Dame is high maintenance. They want to play Stanford
- 34:37Speaker 1: but not have it count for one of their ACC games.
- 34:40Speaker 1: Or maybe they do want it to count. Depends on
- 34:42Speaker 1: the season. Saying they've got a side deal with Clemson.
- 34:47Speaker 1: So there are a lot of complications that come with
- 34:50Speaker 1: catering to Notre Dame. And look, I've always said I've
- 34:54Speaker 1: been in favor of Notre Dame's independent status. As you said,
- 34:57Speaker 1: it's one of those kind of quirky elements that gets
- 35:00Speaker 1: people riled up or interested or whatever. um but and
- 35:04Speaker 1: like i think if if anybody else could do it
- 35:07Speaker 1: they should do it too like texas maybe could pull
- 35:09Speaker 1: it off usc could maybe pull it off a michigan
- 35:11Speaker 1: ohio state but not many people could pull it off
- 35:14Speaker 1: and all the people complaining about it like well you
- 35:17Speaker 1: go try it let's see how you do i don't
- 35:18Speaker 1: think you would.
- 35:19Speaker 3: Well hey man while we're here there's actual college football
- 35:23Speaker 3: that's coming up pretty soon um Is there a world
- 35:27Speaker 3: in which Indiana is our back-to-back national champion?
- 35:30Speaker 2: Because I'm starting to see, they're starting.
- 35:31Speaker 3: To get, it was one thing when Cignetti was doing
- 35:33Speaker 3: this with the guys that he wanted.
- 35:35Speaker 2: Now they're starting to get guys other people want too.
- 35:39Speaker 1: Yeah, they did really well in the transfer portal for
- 35:43Speaker 1: guys that a lot of people wanted. It's really second
- 35:45Speaker 1: straight year than they got Fernando Mendoza last year. But
- 35:49Speaker 1: I think they're going to be really good again this year.
- 35:51Speaker 1: We picked them 10th and that was higher than most
- 35:54Speaker 1: people did last year. And we still underrated them. I
- 35:58Speaker 1: think in that AFCA poll, their fifth, do not discount Indiana.
- 36:04Speaker 1: They've still got, they got a lot of really good
- 36:06Speaker 1: players and they brought in a lot of really good players.
- 36:09Speaker 1: As you said, you know, highly rated transfer guys. The
- 36:13Speaker 1: question we will see, Cignetti is, every coach talks about
- 36:18Speaker 1: being a culture guy. He really is like a culture guy. Like,
- 36:21Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we're going to do things this way.
- 36:23Speaker 1: And a lot of that was Saban, He's also, he's
- 36:26Speaker 1: a coach's son. They had Nick Marsh, this receiver that
- 36:29Speaker 1: they got in from Michigan state. It was caught a
- 36:31Speaker 1: hundred passes in two years, really talented guy. And he
- 36:35Speaker 1: showed up at spring practice wearing gold cleats. No, that
- 36:38Speaker 1: didn't go too well with Sig. He made an issue
- 36:41Speaker 1: of it. He said, you know, after the press conference said, yeah, yeah. He, he,
- 36:46Speaker 1: he found out what it's like to get his ass ripped.
- 36:48Speaker 1: I think it's the first time he, that had happened
- 36:50Speaker 1: to him. So there will be a, a level of
- 36:56Speaker 1: controlling sort of like you fit into us, not we
- 37:00Speaker 1: fit to you mentality that we'll maintain. And we'll see
- 37:03Speaker 1: how that works with a different level of recruit. Some
- 37:08Speaker 1: places you can get those guys to do that. Alabama,
- 37:11Speaker 1: that's one of their great levels of success under Saban
- 37:15Speaker 1: was you bring in superstars who play to the way
- 37:18Speaker 1: you want them in a team fashion. We'll see if
- 37:21Speaker 1: that's going to work in Indiana.
- 37:23Speaker 3: Speaking of Alabama, I feel like every year I talked
- 37:26Speaker 3: about Lincoln Riley being on the highest seat.
- 37:28Speaker 2: Incorrect. Every year is Kalen DeBoer.
- 37:31Speaker 3: Is that is there a world where Alabama fans recalibrate
- 37:34Speaker 3: their standards for the new for the new world order?
- 37:36Speaker 3: Because I will never forget when they scored that touchdown late.
- 37:40Speaker 3: to beat Oklahoma. If you looked at the shots of
- 37:42Speaker 3: DeBoer on the sideline, he looked like the weight of
- 37:45Speaker 3: the world had left his shoulders. There's a zillion dollar buyout,
- 37:48Speaker 3: but Alabama makes you quit. They don't necessarily fire you. Uh,
- 37:52Speaker 3: where do you think this one, how it looks this
- 37:54Speaker 3: year for them?
- 37:55Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I don't know. I think it's iffy. Uh,
- 37:58Speaker 1: they're starting number 11, which is low by their saving standards.
- 38:03Speaker 1: And I'm not sure 11 is they're, they're worth 11. Um, it,
- 38:09Speaker 1: It's so interesting. I mean, you are right. They had
- 38:13Speaker 1: to win that Oklahoma game. And even, I will say this, Beaumont,
- 38:17Speaker 1: even after winning that game, they then lost so badly
- 38:21Speaker 1: to Indiana, a program they had looked down upon forever,
- 38:25Speaker 1: that a lot of people forgot they even won a
- 38:27Speaker 1: playoff game on the road because the loss was so bad.
- 38:31Speaker 1: They lost by 35 points to Indiana and just got...
- 38:35Speaker 1: hunched in the face in the second half, and that's
- 38:38Speaker 1: the dominant image lingering over them. That and they did
- 38:42Speaker 1: lose by three touchdowns in the SEC championship game. So
- 38:46Speaker 1: absolutely pressure still on Kalen DeBoer. Now, the administration made
- 38:53Speaker 1: it clear they wanted to keep him last year when
- 38:55Speaker 1: there was some interest possibly from Michigan, maybe from Penn State.
- 38:59Speaker 1: So they're behind him. I don't know where the fan
- 39:02Speaker 1: base is, and I'll tell you, like, that fan base is–
- 39:05Speaker 1: probably unlike any other. I remember very clearly in 2009
- 39:09Speaker 1: when Alabama was on its way to win its first
- 39:12Speaker 1: championship under Saban. They barely beat Tennessee with Lane Kiffin
- 39:17Speaker 1: as the coach. Maybe this might have been 2010. I
- 39:19Speaker 1: don't remember which year.
- 39:20Speaker 2: No, it was 09.
- 39:21Speaker 1: It was 09. Okay, it was 09. And Terrence Cody
- 39:23Speaker 1: blocked the field goal on the last play to win
- 39:25Speaker 1: the game. And Stadium erupts more in relief than in
- 39:30Speaker 1: joy and I remember walking down to the field and
- 39:33Speaker 1: some fan pulls me aside I'm at ESPN then and
- 39:36Speaker 1: he pulls me and said I can't believe this came
- 39:40Speaker 1: down to the last play Bear Bryant would be so
- 39:42Speaker 1: embarrassed for that I mean just like furious that they won,
- 39:46Speaker 1: but they needed a last-second blocked field goal. And I
- 39:49Speaker 1: think that's that level of expectation that has been there
- 39:55Speaker 1: for decades and certainly has not gone away three years
- 39:58Speaker 1: after Nick Saban.
- 40:00Speaker 2: They threw a brick through Bill Curry's window.
- 40:03Speaker 1: Yes, they did.
- 40:05Speaker 3: That's always the one we go back to. I kept
- 40:08Speaker 3: trying to tell people, even Bear Bryant had that bad
- 40:12Speaker 3: year at the end, and then he quit.
- 40:13Speaker 2: Now, of course, then he died.
- 40:15Speaker 3: But he told them, this is not the coaching you
- 40:18Speaker 3: guys deserve. With Saban, that last year where they squeaked
- 40:23Speaker 3: into the playoff, Saban got out just in time.
- 40:26Speaker 2: The monster would have turned on him like it turned
- 40:28Speaker 2: on anybody else. And DeBoer... it's a job you take,
- 40:33Speaker 2: but Saban was so good.
- 40:34Speaker 3: We have a generation that just doesn't understand exactly how
- 40:36Speaker 3: this job works.
- 40:37Speaker 2: And I just don't know how this job continues to.
- 40:39Speaker 3: Work where you can't just reasonably expect that every coach
- 40:43Speaker 3: at Alabama is going to have at least one very
- 40:45Speaker 3: good to great team, which has really been the case
- 40:47Speaker 3: up until this point.
- 40:48Speaker 2: Everybody's had at least one.
- 40:50Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, Gene Stallings won a national championship there.
- 40:53Speaker 1: You know, I mean, that is a place where Championship-level
- 40:59Speaker 1: success is expected. And for Kalen DeBoer, I mean, yeah,
- 41:04Speaker 1: you take that job when it's available, but holy cow,
- 41:07Speaker 1: you are stepping into something that nothing can prepare you,
- 41:10Speaker 1: I don't think, for it. And we'll see this year
- 41:15Speaker 1: if they've got the horses, because if they don't, then,
- 41:19Speaker 1: as you said, they'll wheel around on him. There is
- 41:22Speaker 1: no doubt about it. The expectation is we don't just...
- 41:26Speaker 1: Go 10-2. We go 12-0. We win the SEC. We
- 41:30Speaker 1: go to the playoff, and we win that too. So
- 41:33Speaker 1: we'll see where this team can fall somewhere on the
- 41:36Speaker 1: spectrum between very good and winning everything.
- 41:40Speaker 2: Now, you mentioned Michigan.
- 41:42Speaker 3: They've got something going that you don't see very often,
- 41:44Speaker 3: which is an actual factual Hall of Fame coach changing jobs.
- 41:48Speaker 2: They got one. And at Big Ten Media Day, he tried.
- 41:51Speaker 3: To explain to people that basically he doesn't think that
- 41:54Speaker 3: a rivalry requires you to hate the people on the
- 41:56Speaker 3: other side. And I think it's important to note about Whittingham.
- 42:00Speaker 3: Kyle Whittingham is a BYU grad who coached at Utah forever.
- 42:03Speaker 3: So maybe he had to think like that. But did
- 42:05Speaker 3: he not know where he was when he said that?
- 42:09Speaker 1: It was an eye-opening statement. That's for sure. That is
- 42:11Speaker 1: a perspective that is not appreciated in those two states,
- 42:16Speaker 1: in Ohio and in Michigan. But he has like the
- 42:21Speaker 1: Holy war is vicious. It is serious between BYU and Utah.
- 42:26Speaker 1: I mean, they, they hate each other and he did
- 42:28Speaker 1: manage to be on both sides of that thing and,
- 42:32Speaker 1: and live to tell about it, but you can't take
- 42:36Speaker 1: that out and translate it into Ohio state, Michigan. You
- 42:41Speaker 1: just can't, you have to, you got to lean into
- 42:44Speaker 1: the insanity of that and the all consuming nature of
- 42:47Speaker 1: it and And yes, we have to hate them and
- 42:49Speaker 1: they have to hate us or else life is meaningless.
- 42:53Speaker 1: So it's amazing. I think Michigan lucked into an adult
- 42:58Speaker 1: in charge after not having one with Sharon Moore. And
- 43:02Speaker 1: I think that they're in a position to transition really,
- 43:07Speaker 1: really well under Kyle Whittingham. But he could also be...
- 43:13Speaker 1: 10-1 going into Thanksgiving weekend. If he comes out 12-2,
- 43:16Speaker 1: everybody's going to say he needs to go.
- 43:20Speaker 2: Same about the guy on the other side, right?
- 43:22Speaker 1: Oh, 100%.
- 43:22Speaker 3: 100%.
- 43:22Speaker 1: Ryan Day won.
- 43:26Speaker 3: That national championship, but he did beat Michigan, and I
- 43:29Speaker 3: don't think that's a fair trade.
- 43:31Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no. Ryan Day winning the national championship was
- 43:37Speaker 1: the biggest thing, obviously. But beating Michigan last year was
- 43:41Speaker 1: almost as big because if they had lost to them again,
- 43:43Speaker 1: you know, that just creates such a level of toxicity.
- 43:47Speaker 1: That was one of the great escapes from a burning
- 43:49Speaker 1: building of all time was them running through the playoff
- 43:52Speaker 1: in 2024 after that just horrific loss to Michigan at home.
- 43:57Speaker 1: And that certainly that bought him the ability to keep
- 44:02Speaker 1: being the coach there. But You know, he's won. Beating
- 44:07Speaker 1: Michigan last year was big, but you've got to keep
- 44:10Speaker 1: beating Michigan if you're Ohio State.
- 44:12Speaker 3: Yeah, we talked about the chaos of the bill and
- 44:14Speaker 3: everything else as if this isn't a world that just
- 44:17Speaker 3: moves on chaos all the time. Like, let me look
- 44:22Speaker 3: it up so I get the numbers right in this moment.
- 44:25Speaker 3: Ryan Day's record at Ohio State is 82-12. And it's
- 44:34Speaker 3: a little dicey.
- 44:38Speaker 1: 82 and 12. And what have you done for me lately?
- 44:40Speaker 1: You didn't win the big 10 title last year and
- 44:43Speaker 1: you were upset in the playoff. You know, those things linger.
- 44:48Speaker 2: Pat 40. Check them out.
- 44:49Speaker 3: Si.com covering college football, college basketball, my man.
- 44:53Speaker 2: I appreciate you.
- 44:54Speaker 1: My pleasure. Thank you. All right.
- 44:56Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here
- 44:57Speaker 3: on the right time. We do this thing a few
- 44:59Speaker 3: days a week. Mike McQuaid handling everything behind the scenes.
- 45:01Speaker 2: Thank you, sir.
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