Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Adam Rittenberg on his piece about BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, Utah suing Freddie Whittingham + more

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Adam Rittenberg on his piece about BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, Utah suing Freddie Whittingham + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: It's the Sean O'Connell Show. You were home of the
0:07
Speaker 1: best inside of your utes. Let's get back to OC
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Speaker 1: from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety
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Speaker 1: two to one a m.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Shan O'Connell Show.
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Speaker 3: Welcome in Adam Rittenberg, my friend, senior college football insider
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Speaker 3: and writer over at ESPN. At ESPN Rittenberg, if you're
0:35
Speaker 3: not already following him on the tweet.
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Speaker 2: Machine, Adam, welcome back to the show. How are you, sir?
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Speaker 4: I'm doing great. How you doing, brother?
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Speaker 2: Doing awesome?
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Speaker 1: Man.
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Speaker 3: We're two weeks away from Utah football season kicking off,
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Speaker 3: and even sooner when we have those week zero games coming.
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Speaker 2: Up, So we get to stop with all these.
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Speaker 3: Kind of dumb legal stories that are dominating the offseason
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Speaker 3: and get to real football.
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Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to that.
1:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, get me too. It's a season, obviously, that has
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Speaker 4: contained a lot of that type of news, whether it's
1:08
Speaker 4: the you know, individual player eligibility cases and the injunctions
1:12
Speaker 4: that have gone on, or the attempt to get a
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Speaker 4: lot of bill pass through Congress. Yeah, you know, it's
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Speaker 4: it's a different sport, certainly than the one I started covering.
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Speaker 4: But the one thing that doesn't change is the excitement
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Speaker 4: at the time of year, rightfully so for the for
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Speaker 4: the games and the teams and the coaches and everything
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Speaker 4: that we actually love about college football, which is now
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Speaker 4: only a few days away.
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Speaker 3: Relative to those individual eligibility cases and you know, players
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Speaker 3: seeking and apparently in some cases being granted a surprise
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Speaker 3: fifth year of eligibility, how do the coaches that you've
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Speaker 3: talked to about this feel about, you know, another layer
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Speaker 3: being added to the mix. I imagine there are some
1:51
Speaker 3: who need a little help on the offensive line or
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Speaker 3: the linebacker room or whatever that might be relieved by this,
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Speaker 3: But I don't know if that's a universal opinion or whatever.
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Speaker 2: What have the coaches been saying.
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Speaker 4: Well, yeah, yeah, I think on the whole they loop
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Speaker 4: all this in with the same you kind of chaotic
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Speaker 4: existence and environment that we have right now in college football.
2:15
Speaker 4: But at the same time you have some of them
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Speaker 4: they're saying, hey, we could use you know that that
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Speaker 4: player who was cut from an NFL roster, or hey
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Speaker 4: we've got a hole it's safety because of an injury,
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Speaker 4: or you know, these guys just aren't performing, and so
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Speaker 4: you know, on the one hand, I think, you know,
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Speaker 4: globally they realize it's not good, but it also is
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Speaker 4: something that can help them individually. And this sport has
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Speaker 4: always been driven by self interest and not necessarily what's
2:39
Speaker 4: good for everyone. And and so that's why, you know,
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Speaker 4: I get what they're some of the things they're saying
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Speaker 4: about about why this is bad. But at the same time,
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Speaker 4: you know, who everyone could also just not take these players,
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Speaker 4: and we know that's not going to happen.
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Speaker 3: The University of Utah back in the headlines today for
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Speaker 3: a reason that not a lot of us wanted them
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Speaker 3: to be. They're a lawsuit being filed by the university
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Speaker 3: against former tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham, who of course
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Speaker 3: is the brother of former head coach Kyle Whittingham. Both
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Speaker 3: Kyle and Freddie are at Michigan now. And you know,
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Speaker 3: it's a breach of contract with damages kind of a
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Speaker 3: situation going on here. Notably, Freddie is the only former
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Speaker 3: Utah coach that did not settle up, did not pay
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Speaker 3: the damages for leaving his contract at the University of Utah,
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Speaker 3: and that's why this lawsuit is happening. But I wanted
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Speaker 3: your perspective on this. I don't pretend I'm not too
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Speaker 3: close to this. And you know, there's a certain contingent
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Speaker 3: of the fan base here that's like, can we just
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Speaker 3: stop and just let this stuff go away? But you know,
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Speaker 3: what are your thoughts on a lawsuit between Utah and
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Speaker 3: Freddie Whittingham.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's certainly unfortunate, just because, like you're coming back
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Speaker 4: to the Winningham name and the success that both Kyle
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Speaker 4: and Freddie had at Utah for many years, and the
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Speaker 4: longevity and just the legacy that they'll leave there, and
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Speaker 4: you know, nothing like this is going to tarnish that.
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Speaker 4: But it certainly strained the relationship between the university and
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Speaker 4: the Whinningham family, which is obviously that's been something that's
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Speaker 4: come up here quite a bit since the end of
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Speaker 4: last season. A certain part of me is like, yeah,
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Speaker 4: just move on. You know, this is not not an
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Speaker 4: insignificant amount of money, but it's certainly not you know,
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Speaker 4: hundreds of millions of dollars tens of millions of dollars
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Speaker 4: that are at stake. But you know, legally, Utah does
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Speaker 4: feel it's entitled to some compensation for the way that
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Speaker 4: he left, and and and some of the steps that
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Speaker 4: you're supposed to take when you leave one job for another,
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Speaker 4: that it's alleging Freddie Whinningham didn't take. So from a
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Speaker 4: legal perspective, I get it, you know, is it really necessary?
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Speaker 4: I think that's the case that we that's the thing
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Speaker 4: we always always ask when it comes to legal proceedings.
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Speaker 4: That's certainly up for debate, but you know, we'll see
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Speaker 4: where this ends up going. It's just it's just unfortunate
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Speaker 4: because you know, Kyle Whittingham is an incredible coach and
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Speaker 4: I think Utah fans recognize that and certainly want to
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Speaker 4: celebrate him, and you know, these things make that relagenship
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Speaker 4: a little bit more strained.
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Speaker 3: Well, it's it seems like it's going to come out
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Speaker 3: to like a million a million and a half dollars here,
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Speaker 3: which for you or me, that's a lot of money
5:16
Speaker 3: for an athletic department in power for football. Now that's
5:20
Speaker 3: you know that that's that you spend that on styrofoam cups.
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Speaker 3: So when you look at it from the financial perspective,
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Speaker 3: there's two different ways I think you could view it.
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Speaker 3: You got to maximize every dollar you can right now
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Speaker 3: in a very expensive landscape. But also, like you just
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Speaker 3: mentioned and that we talked about on the show earlier, right,
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Speaker 3: it's it's further straining the whole Wittingham Utah thing. And
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Speaker 3: is it, you know, worth the pr battle, even if
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Speaker 3: you have to eat the million dollars or whatever because
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Speaker 3: it's a public university. Does the athletic department even get
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Speaker 3: to make that call? Or does it the state auditor
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Speaker 3: come down and eventually forced this? I mean, is is
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Speaker 3: it worth it over what is in the grand scheme
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Speaker 3: of college football a pretty small, insignificant amount of.
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Speaker 4: Money, right, and you know it's somewhat of a drop
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Speaker 4: in the bucket. But I think you're, like, your point
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Speaker 4: is really important that every state is different and who
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Speaker 4: is really making news decisions? Could it be coming from
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Speaker 4: the university level? Could it be coming from the state level.
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Speaker 4: There's also precedent, which is something that we've all dealt
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Speaker 4: with in our jobs. You know, whether we want something
6:26
Speaker 4: or feel we're entitled to something. Well, if we gave
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Speaker 4: you that, it would set president well. In this case,
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Speaker 4: I'm sure there's some of Utah's folks are saying, hey,
6:35
Speaker 4: if we just let the slide, what's going to stop
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Speaker 4: the next assistant or coordinator or maybe even head coach
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Speaker 4: from leaving without you know, following these steps and at
6:46
Speaker 4: least giving our us a chance to talk to you
6:49
Speaker 4: or do what needs to be done to create a
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Speaker 4: more graceful exit. So yeah, clearly there's a motion involved here. Again,
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Speaker 4: I just keep coming back to the unfortunate nature of
6:59
Speaker 4: it because of what that family, and certainly Kyle Is
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Speaker 4: in particular, did for Utah.
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Speaker 3: Adam Rittenberg is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell
7:08
Speaker 3: schol talking all things college football. You wrote an excellent
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Speaker 3: piece for ESPN about one of our favorite guys, even
7:16
Speaker 3: though he's at the hated rival. Kalan Satake is, like
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Speaker 3: mentioned in your article, everyone's favorite guy.
7:23
Speaker 2: He's everyone's favorite coach.
7:24
Speaker 3: He is awesome as a human being, as a football
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Speaker 3: coach everywhere. I love that your article shined a light
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Speaker 3: on that. Why was this the angle taken? It's a
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Speaker 3: fascinating time at BYU, it's a fascinating time in college
7:39
Speaker 3: football in general. Why was his popularity, for lack of
7:44
Speaker 3: a better term, the focus of the article.
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Speaker 4: Well, I think it started with just what you outlined.
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Speaker 4: Oh see, as far as how he's viewed among his peers,
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Speaker 4: and I think if there was one relationship that jumped
7:57
Speaker 4: out to me the most, it would be his friendship
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Speaker 4: with Joey Maguire. Fisis tech and you've seen them interact
8:03
Speaker 4: before huge games and had other Big twelve functions and
8:06
Speaker 4: it's like, man, that's the dude. You got to be like,
8:08
Speaker 4: why are you budding up to that guy? And that's
8:11
Speaker 4: just Killanie and that's how he is. And you know,
8:13
Speaker 4: in spending time out there in April, we talked about
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Speaker 4: that and it traced back to Lavell Edwards and how
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Speaker 4: he is this way in part because of who he
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Speaker 4: is and how he's wired, but also because of his
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Speaker 4: coach and how Lavelle Lavell Edwards was with his peers
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Speaker 4: as the longtime coach at b YU and after everything
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Speaker 4: that happened, you know, Tilanie almost leaving and and then
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Speaker 4: you know, coming back, and we talked about the legacy
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Speaker 4: that he wants to continue to build there and obviously
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Speaker 4: have these friendships with coaches and not make it bitter
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Speaker 4: at least before games start and end, but but also
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Speaker 4: ultimately chased what Lavell Edwards accomplished, which is elevating b
8:54
Speaker 4: YU back into the national conversation, and they've been right there,
8:58
Speaker 4: you know, with twenty three wins two years of the
9:00
Speaker 4: only team that's won that in many games that hasn't
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Speaker 4: made the college football playoffs. So that's where BYU is.
9:06
Speaker 4: And so it's a lot about the legacy that he
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Speaker 4: wants to leave in his connections to a Lavelle Edwards.
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Speaker 4: But yeah, you just won't find a more popular coach,
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Speaker 4: especially at his own conference, than Kalani is at BYU.
9:20
Speaker 3: This might be a dumb question, but why is that
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Speaker 3: so rare in college football? Like, I mean, I get it,
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Speaker 3: there's one hundred and thirty five different personalities and things
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Speaker 3: like that, But he is an outlier. And I'm glad
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Speaker 3: that you mentioned Lavelle's impact on the way Kilanie is
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Speaker 3: because I think that's an important part at least of
9:43
Speaker 3: the history of football in our state. But you know,
9:47
Speaker 3: like it seems like other guys could afford to be
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Speaker 3: more this way, and there's a lot of standoffishness and
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Speaker 3: cagness and things like that. Not that college coaches aren't
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Speaker 3: nice or cool or whatever, but I mean, why is
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Speaker 3: he set it outlier?
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Speaker 4: Well, I will say this, I think there's more summiness
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Speaker 4: than people recus. You know, the SEC coaches that talk
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Speaker 4: about this a little bit, you know Kirby Smart and
10:12
Speaker 4: talk about the text chain that they all are on,
10:15
Speaker 4: and I think there is more of that than that
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Speaker 4: maybe comes out publicly. But a lot of it is
10:20
Speaker 4: the fact that, you know, you have these sand bases
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Speaker 4: that they represent that don't want to see them interacting
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Speaker 4: nicely with the rival. And there's so much more that's
10:29
Speaker 4: on camera now there's social media and hey, I saw
10:33
Speaker 4: so and so, you know down here and they're playing
10:35
Speaker 4: golf together. What's going on? And I think more coaches
10:39
Speaker 4: would and they do get along. You're better behind the scenes.
10:42
Speaker 4: We just don't see it. I think with Kilane, his
10:44
Speaker 4: point to me was, listen, I can't hide that like that.
10:47
Speaker 4: There's lying about the you know, the fan of me
10:49
Speaker 4: comes out. Before I played at BYU, before I played
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Speaker 4: for Lavelle, I was a football fan and I'm not
10:54
Speaker 4: going to suppress that when I'm around other coaches. And
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Speaker 4: I do think it points to Jannie knowing who he
11:01
Speaker 4: is and not trying to change that because of his
11:05
Speaker 4: position and because of the money and because of the attention.
11:08
Speaker 4: I think some coaches have to suppress that or have
11:11
Speaker 4: a hard time, you know, kind of showing who they
11:14
Speaker 4: are with their peers in public because they're worried about
11:18
Speaker 4: how it's going to look to a fan base. I
11:20
Speaker 4: don't think Klana cares about that, and I think that's
11:22
Speaker 4: something that certainly is great. And I will say this,
11:24
Speaker 4: I think there's a better vibe among the current Big
11:28
Speaker 4: twelve coaches than maybe any group in the country. There's
11:31
Speaker 4: a pretty good one at ACC. I was at ATC
11:33
Speaker 4: Media Days. I won't say the coaches, but we were
11:36
Speaker 4: out one night having some beers with two coaches that
11:38
Speaker 4: obviously you have to play each other now and then
11:41
Speaker 4: in that league and their friends, and that is the
11:44
Speaker 4: case more often than maybe the public realizes. But I
11:47
Speaker 4: think Kilane takes it to another level at BYU.
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Speaker 3: The timing of when your article, your feel good article
11:54
Speaker 3: about Colanie Satake came out was very interesting here locally
11:58
Speaker 3: because of the storyline that that maybe there's a bit
12:02
Speaker 3: of a feud internally developing between between Kilani and Brian Santiago,
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Speaker 3: who is the athletic director at the University of Utah.
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Speaker 3: And I want to be fair to both parties. And
12:14
Speaker 3: say that neither of them have characterized it that way,
12:16
Speaker 3: but that is the perception that maybe there's some tension
12:21
Speaker 3: on unfulfilled promises and things like that. And then you know,
12:24
Speaker 3: we're getting local stories about that, and then ESPN article
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Speaker 3: drops about how everyone in the world can get along
12:31
Speaker 3: with Kalani Satake. Everyone loves Kalani Satake, And if you're
12:35
Speaker 3: in the Santiago camp, you're probably just like, oh me, like,
12:38
Speaker 3: give me a break.
12:39
Speaker 2: We get it. He's universally loved.
12:42
Speaker 3: What is your perception of that dynamic and that relationship
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Speaker 3: and what you know about uh, you know, the brewing
12:49
Speaker 3: subplot at BYU.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, No, it's interesting because they did by reporting in April,
12:56
Speaker 4: so I wasn't on the ground as much leading up
12:59
Speaker 4: to what happened there and obviously the story running, but
13:03
Speaker 4: following it, and you know, when I was there, not
13:07
Speaker 4: not that everything is perfect all the time, but it
13:08
Speaker 4: certainly seemed like like like things were on a good trajectory.
13:12
Speaker 4: But I'll say this, in talking to about Kilanie and Brian,
13:17
Speaker 4: you know, they they they both kind of gave their
13:19
Speaker 4: visions for what, you know, the next steps were, and
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Speaker 4: it wasn't just about like oh, we need more money
13:24
Speaker 4: to make this work. It's it's having people in certain areas.
13:28
Speaker 4: It's it's elevating and beefing up the depth in certain departments.
13:32
Speaker 4: It's you know, Kilanie, you know told me flat out.
13:34
Speaker 4: It's like it was completely about the money I'd be
13:36
Speaker 4: at Penn State. So it's interesting that this has come
13:40
Speaker 4: out and you know what was agreed upon, what was
13:43
Speaker 4: put into writing, what hasn't been delivered yet. You know,
13:46
Speaker 4: clearly there's tension there. I think his answers about both
13:50
Speaker 4: the resources and his relationships with with Brian are are
13:54
Speaker 4: telling that things aren't all great. Doesn't mean it can't
13:57
Speaker 4: be repaired, but it's something to watch, you know, just
14:01
Speaker 4: as I do. If Kalane continues to win, and I
14:03
Speaker 4: think he's going to Penn State will not be the
14:06
Speaker 4: last team that wants to hire him as a head coach.
14:08
Speaker 4: Other teams are going to keep coming after him, and
14:11
Speaker 4: he's going to have to keep telling them no. If
14:13
Speaker 4: he feels good about things at BYU, and if he doesn't,
14:16
Speaker 4: he probably will walk out the door one day, which
14:18
Speaker 4: would certainly be a real blow for BYU because of
14:22
Speaker 4: his success and what he means to the program. So
14:24
Speaker 4: it's an important time, just as it was last you know,
14:28
Speaker 4: around December first, when everything was seemingly going down with
14:31
Speaker 4: Penn State. It's an important time to get things right
14:35
Speaker 4: from an alignment standpoint, which doesn't seem to be the
14:38
Speaker 4: case right now.
14:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were this close in Utah to having changing
14:43
Speaker 3: the guard at the University of Utah after twenty one years,
14:45
Speaker 3: changing the.
14:46
Speaker 2: Guard at BYU after a decade.
14:48
Speaker 3: I mean, that would have been even wilder than the
14:50
Speaker 3: offseason already was swinging the focus back to our flagship
14:54
Speaker 3: partner or the home of the uth here on ESPN
14:57
Speaker 3: seven hundred, Morgan scally taking over. He was the acting
15:01
Speaker 3: head coach for the bowl game, so he's one to
15:03
Speaker 3: zero as the head coach so far. But this was
15:07
Speaker 3: his first spring ball in his first offseason program, and
15:09
Speaker 3: now we're in the middle of his first full fall camp.
15:13
Speaker 3: As a national viewpoint, as someone who covers every conference
15:17
Speaker 3: in the game all across the nation, what are your
15:21
Speaker 3: expectations for Morgan Scalley's Utah football program.
15:25
Speaker 4: Well, on that same trip, I spent time with Morgan
15:27
Speaker 4: and Utah and we talked a lot about you know, again,
15:31
Speaker 4: there's only one step to take now, and that's to
15:34
Speaker 4: make the playoffs, and so it's not to go the
15:36
Speaker 4: other way. And that's certainly his hope and his expectation
15:42
Speaker 4: and the type of program he's trying to build. And
15:45
Speaker 4: it'll be really interesting to see if they can do
15:47
Speaker 4: it right, especially in this first year, because they still
15:49
Speaker 4: have some really good players left over, obviously Devin Dampier
15:52
Speaker 4: at quarterback. They've got their running back coming back, They've got,
15:56
Speaker 4: you know, always some solid players on the defensive side
15:59
Speaker 4: that was able to watch practice and visit with. But
16:03
Speaker 4: you know, that next step is really difficult, especially amid
16:06
Speaker 4: a transition, even from somebody who obviously like Kyle to
16:11
Speaker 4: his protege and Morgan who everybody knows and has a
16:14
Speaker 4: lot of respect for them. So I'm really interested to
16:17
Speaker 4: see how it goes down this year because they're not
16:20
Speaker 4: being talked about, you know, like b Yu in Texas
16:23
Speaker 4: Tech and some of the other contenders in the Big twelve.
16:26
Speaker 4: But Utah has shown that they should be in that
16:29
Speaker 4: conversation and you know, if you know, things go right
16:33
Speaker 4: and stay healthy. Offensive line obviously a big question mark
16:36
Speaker 4: going into the year with so many new players, but
16:39
Speaker 4: if that group is strong and they can build off
16:42
Speaker 4: of the success last year with the MPRE. I think
16:44
Speaker 4: that they can, you know, be one of those other
16:46
Speaker 4: contending teams in the Big Twelve. But I think the
16:49
Speaker 4: big picture from Morgan is how do I take this
16:52
Speaker 4: step this program one one step further to make it
16:55
Speaker 4: a playoff team, because that's really the only thing Utah
16:58
Speaker 4: hasn't accomplished.
17:01
Speaker 3: How many other teams are flirting seriously or are moving
17:05
Speaker 3: forward with private equity partnerships in their athletic department, and
17:08
Speaker 3: of course every athletic department centers mostly around football. Obviously,
17:14
Speaker 3: Utah took this step last year. We got the announcement
17:17
Speaker 3: at the end of the year, I should say last year,
17:20
Speaker 3: and you know it's fully ratified and now Crimson Brand
17:23
Speaker 3: Partners is an actual functioning body. It's a real thing.
17:27
Speaker 3: How many other programs around the country are taking these steps?
17:31
Speaker 4: Well, I think there's certainly efforts being put into exploring
17:35
Speaker 4: whether it's right. Every school is different, as you know,
17:38
Speaker 4: especially public schools have to decide if they want to
17:42
Speaker 4: go down that road. But you know, everyone in the
17:46
Speaker 4: country is looking for money because of what it's cost
17:50
Speaker 4: to put to each other. These football rosters and basketball
17:53
Speaker 4: rosters and to keep coaches and hire new coaches. So
17:57
Speaker 4: it's definitely, you know, an option for you know, the
18:00
Speaker 4: Big Ten. You know nearly went through with it last year,
18:04
Speaker 4: had a couple of holdouts in Michigan and USC and
18:08
Speaker 4: then that's kind of been put on hold for now
18:11
Speaker 4: as a league wide private equity approach, but it's certainly
18:16
Speaker 4: something that athletic directors and university presidents are considering.
18:21
Speaker 3: Adam Rittenberg for another couple of minutes here on the
18:23
Speaker 3: Sean O'Connell show, talking all Things Utah Football, touched on
18:27
Speaker 3: some BYU Football, this Big Twelve conference on a national landscape.
18:33
Speaker 3: It's funny because this is like publication season. This is
18:36
Speaker 3: when you get preseason watch lists, and when you get
18:39
Speaker 3: these are the top one hundred players in college football,
18:41
Speaker 3: or the top one fifty, or these are the forty
18:44
Speaker 3: most important transfers and things like that, and the Big
18:48
Speaker 3: Twelve in every one of these lists and compiled sort
18:52
Speaker 3: of thought processes, is woefully underrepresented, in my opinion, or
18:57
Speaker 3: they're completely absent until you get down to the mid
19:01
Speaker 3: range of elite players. And I'm not saying that it's
19:05
Speaker 3: incorrect because obviously, the big money is being spent elsewhere,
19:09
Speaker 3: and big time players are following the big money right now.
19:13
Speaker 3: How much a problem do you think that is for
19:15
Speaker 3: the Big Twelve as the season starts to play out
19:18
Speaker 3: in just a couple of weeks.
19:20
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I think there's you know, you look at
19:24
Speaker 4: you look at who's coming back in the conference, and
19:26
Speaker 4: there's a lot of new quarterbacks and you know, they
19:28
Speaker 4: they've they've had some good players transfer out to other teams,
19:32
Speaker 4: especially in the Big Ten and the SEC. But there's
19:35
Speaker 4: still a lot of talent in this league. I think
19:37
Speaker 4: it's just a matter of figuring out. You know, for years,
19:39
Speaker 4: the Big twelves identity with offense and exciting, tempo based,
19:44
Speaker 4: high scoring games. You know that that shifted a bit.
19:47
Speaker 4: There's still teams that will put up points, but it's
19:49
Speaker 4: much more of a balanced league, a league that plays
19:53
Speaker 4: defense and obviously has to recruit and develop at a
19:57
Speaker 4: at a high level and ultimately, you know, keep keep
20:00
Speaker 4: good players. I think that was one of the stories
20:02
Speaker 4: in talking to both the BYU folks in particular, but
20:06
Speaker 4: also Utah, like how do you keep these guys the
20:08
Speaker 4: guys that you've have, you identified and you developed into
20:12
Speaker 4: desirable players, and both those schools were able to do that,
20:15
Speaker 4: and I think that's important to watch. Texas Tech has
20:18
Speaker 4: been really good in the portal the last few years,
20:22
Speaker 4: you know, Okahoma State. I'm very interested to see what
20:24
Speaker 4: Eric Morris can do there, bringing in the group that
20:27
Speaker 4: he did from North Texas. I think TCU's kind of
20:31
Speaker 4: a sneaky good team. Houston quietly won ten games last year,
20:34
Speaker 4: so there are there's quite a lot of depth at
20:36
Speaker 4: the top of the Big Twelve, but it's something that
20:39
Speaker 4: they have to be you know, tungners of is do
20:43
Speaker 4: we have the top end talented quarterback? Are we keeping
20:46
Speaker 4: the best players in this conference? Or and then financially
20:50
Speaker 4: are we able to keep up as much as we
20:52
Speaker 4: can with leagues that just have a lot more resources
20:55
Speaker 4: than we do.
20:56
Speaker 3: Speaking of resources, the arms race has escalated rapidly. You know,
21:00
Speaker 3: it seems like it was only months ago that Kyle
21:04
Speaker 3: Whittingham was warning saying, Hey, if there's no safeguards put
21:07
Speaker 3: in place, we're going to be talking about forty and
21:08
Speaker 3: fifty million dollars rosters, and then forty and fifty million
21:13
Speaker 3: dollar rosters, well forty million dollar rosters being reported around
21:16
Speaker 3: college football for the top of the top. Obviously, there are,
21:20
Speaker 3: you know, certain mechanisms put in place, or they're attempting
21:25
Speaker 3: to put certain mechanisms in place. Government intervention being asked
21:29
Speaker 3: for to try to put a cap, like a real
21:31
Speaker 3: hard cap on things. Where are we with the Protect
21:34
Speaker 3: College Sports Act and some of these other measures that
21:38
Speaker 3: might slow down the arms race that so many teams,
21:41
Speaker 3: especially in the Big Twelve, are having a hard time.
21:43
Speaker 2: Keeping up with.
21:45
Speaker 4: You know, I think it just depends on what happens when, when,
21:48
Speaker 4: when the recess ends, and where that act falls in
21:52
Speaker 4: the priority list. You know, I would think that the first,
21:56
Speaker 4: you know, fifteen to thirty days after this and resumes
22:00
Speaker 4: are really important because the closer that we get to
22:03
Speaker 4: midterm elections, there's just a lot more things going on,
22:06
Speaker 4: a lot more priorities outside of college athletics that that
22:10
Speaker 4: those lawmakers are are dealing with. So, you know, it's
22:14
Speaker 4: it's a pretty critical time or if that bill is
22:16
Speaker 4: even gonna happen. I think back to what Tony Pattiti,
22:19
Speaker 4: the Big Ten commissioner, said at media Days last month
22:23
Speaker 4: here in Chicago, which was, Hey, if it doesn't work,
22:25
Speaker 4: we've got to work together as conferences to try to
22:28
Speaker 4: come up with something or you know, or start figuring
22:31
Speaker 4: out do we make our own rules you know in
22:34
Speaker 4: the Big Ten and the SEC doesn't mean we won't
22:36
Speaker 4: play each other. But they're given the amount of time
22:40
Speaker 4: and effort and money that's been put in to this bill,
22:43
Speaker 4: it would be a big disappointment if if they can't
22:46
Speaker 4: have anything go to a vote here, you know, relatively
22:50
Speaker 4: soon after session resumes.
22:52
Speaker 3: I know that these thoughts change and evolve as we
22:56
Speaker 3: get to see more of the football product. But based
22:59
Speaker 3: on the college we have in the preseason, how many
23:03
Speaker 3: national championship contenders are there in college football this year?
23:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the number probably ends around you know,
23:10
Speaker 4: eight or nine, which is certainly better than it used
23:12
Speaker 4: to be. I look at I look at in the
23:15
Speaker 4: Big Ten, you've got three. You've got Ohio State, Oregon,
23:19
Speaker 4: and Indiana. I think Notre Dame is absolutely a national
23:22
Speaker 4: championship contender. I think Miami is a national championship contender.
23:26
Speaker 4: You know, in the Big twelve, we'll see, you know
23:30
Speaker 4: right now. You know with Texas Tech, uh, you know,
23:32
Speaker 4: having a quarterback that they like but certainly wasn't their
23:36
Speaker 4: preferred option going into the season after last year can't
23:40
Speaker 4: be written off. But you know, a team that has
23:42
Speaker 4: some curiosity in my view, I think the Uyus, you know,
23:45
Speaker 4: right there and then and then acc wise beyond Miami,
23:49
Speaker 4: is it is it Louisville is a SMU? Is there
23:52
Speaker 4: a surprise team or too sec wise, you know, I
23:55
Speaker 4: think Georgia and Texas are the teams that you start
23:57
Speaker 4: off with, but I'm really interested to see how good
24:01
Speaker 4: Ole Miss can be coming off of the year that
24:03
Speaker 4: it had with arguably the best backfield in the country,
24:07
Speaker 4: and Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacey, and then you obviously
24:10
Speaker 4: laying at LSU and then some of the playoff teams
24:13
Speaker 4: that returned last year but have some question marks, and
24:16
Speaker 4: at Texas, A and m Alabama, Oklahoma all teams that
24:19
Speaker 4: could get to the playoffs, but if they want to
24:21
Speaker 4: really contend nationally, they're going to have to address some areas.
24:24
Speaker 4: Especially Alabama and Oklahoma were from a run game standpoint.
24:28
Speaker 4: So I think it's probably you know, seven, eight teams
24:32
Speaker 4: maybe nine that are in that conversation. But you know,
24:36
Speaker 4: if we didn't see Indiana coming a couple of years ago,
24:38
Speaker 4: so there could be some real surprises as well.
24:40
Speaker 3: That is true, Adam, continue to keep up the great work.
24:44
Speaker 3: We appreciate everything you write. It gives me a ton
24:47
Speaker 3: of material for my show and especially for jumping on today.
24:49
Speaker 4: Thank you you, bet Man, thanks.
24:51
Speaker 3: For having me Adam Rittenberg, national college football insider over
24:57
Speaker 3: at ESPN. Read everything he writes on ESPN. He is
25:00
Speaker 3: one of the best in the business, and even if
25:04
Speaker 3: you're not a BYU fan, it is worth your time
25:08
Speaker 3: to read the recent piece he put out on Kalani Satake,
25:11
Speaker 3: who is as popular as beloved as any coach in
25:16
Speaker 3: the business.