Speaker 1: Welcome to the Solid Verbal hull.
Speaker 2: That for me, I'm a man, I'm for I've heard
Speaker 2: so many players say, well, I want to be happy.
Speaker 2: You want to be happy for a day? Edith state
Speaker 2: is that woo woom?
Speaker 1: And Dan and Tye welcome back to the Solid Verbal
Speaker 1: boys and girls. My name is ty Hildenbrandt, joining me
Speaker 1: as always somewhere over there, the one and only Dan Rubinstein, Sir,
Speaker 1: how you doing today?
Speaker 2: That's a good way of describing where I am, both
Speaker 2: emotionally and physically. I am. I'm pretty good all things considered.
Speaker 2: My life is okay, but I am my college football
Speaker 2: heart is pretty sad considering the day's news. So I
Speaker 2: want to talk this through with nobody but you, Tyler.
Speaker 1: And likewise, mister Rubinstein. As you said, we broadcast with
Speaker 1: heavy hearts today. We'll get into that in much much more.
Speaker 1: You can always reach out and let us know what's
Speaker 1: on your mind. Soliverbal at gmail dot com. You can
Speaker 1: also go to our website, Solid verbal dot com. There
Speaker 1: is a contact form there, or on Twitter or on
Speaker 1: Instagram or on Facebook. We also do have a subreddit,
Speaker 1: which I would imagine is going to be teaming with
Speaker 1: opinions about not only what's going to go down this season,
Speaker 1: but what's going to go down on this podcast? Dan,
Speaker 1: just so many questions.
Speaker 2: Well, is there podcast drama?
Speaker 1: I suppose there could be, I guess we'll say, not
Speaker 1: that I know of yet, But okay, there's always time,
Speaker 1: And of course subscribe to the show out on Spotify
Speaker 1: and Apple on Google. We will be podcasting for the
Speaker 1: I don't know, foreseeable future. I can't imagine why we wouldn't.
Speaker 1: There's so much to talk about here, Dan.
Speaker 2: Correct, we have no end date. We are going through
Speaker 2: no matter what does or does not happen, we will
Speaker 2: continue this show because it is our happy place.
Speaker 1: Four oh eight verbal one is also the reverbal four
Speaker 1: oh eight eight three seven two two five one. We
Speaker 1: cut a deal with the phone company to open the
Speaker 1: line back up for a limited time. My guess is
Speaker 1: that we're going to get a lot of interesting fan
Speaker 1: reaction for ballers out there need some cathartic experience to
Speaker 1: you know, heal from some of what we found out
Speaker 1: today and some we're going to talk through tonight. Dan,
Speaker 1: let's just let's let's jump right in.
Speaker 2: We do have braaking.
Speaker 1: News, Oh bop bope, two really big catty cosmic announcements
Speaker 1: in the world of college football. You know where this
Speaker 1: is going. We talked about this as a possibility. I
Speaker 1: think to some extent we expected. It doesn't come as
Speaker 1: a huge surprise to either of us. But now that
Speaker 1: it's here, it kind of feels, i don't know, unnatural.
Speaker 1: It hurts as a huge college football fan, as someone
Speaker 1: who does this show, I know you feel the same.
Speaker 1: The Big Ten announced earlier today that it is now
Speaker 1: officially postponing the fall season. Remember, we heard rumors about
Speaker 1: this being a possibility, and there was a lot of backlash,
Speaker 1: and we can get into all that, but the Big
Speaker 1: Ten announced the postponement of the twenty twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: fall sports season that includes all regular season contests and
Speaker 1: Big Ten championships and tournaments, due to the ongoing health
Speaker 1: and safety concerns related to the COVID nineteen pandemic. That
Speaker 1: is straight from the Big Ten statement that came out
Speaker 1: this afternoon. Shortly thereafter, again, as expected, the Pac twelve
Speaker 1: announced a very similar thing that they were also going
Speaker 1: to postpone their fall season with the intention of hopefully
Speaker 1: playing in the springtime. We can get into the merits
Speaker 1: of all all of that, Dan, I guess what matters
Speaker 1: around the world of college football is that there are
Speaker 1: three conferences that have yet to announce. I think we
Speaker 1: can all see the writing on the wall at this point.
Speaker 2: Let's be clear, there are more than three. We have
Speaker 2: the American as well.
Speaker 1: We have three other power conferences. We have three of
Speaker 1: the Power Conference that have yet to announce their intentions.
Speaker 1: All of them, at least as of time of recording here,
Speaker 1: seem like they're going to try and postpone delay drive
Speaker 1: this out as long as possible to see if they
Speaker 1: can get any games in this fall. Correct, The ACC
Speaker 1: seems somewhat hell bent on trying to get as many
Speaker 1: games in as possible to proceed as they had planned.
Speaker 1: But one does wonder how long that can go on.
Speaker 1: All I think it takes is for one of those
Speaker 1: three Power five holdouts to break ranks to eventually join
Speaker 1: the Big ten and Pack twelve before the whole thing
Speaker 1: is going to get nuked. So, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: to unpack here. And what was your reaction to hearing this?
Speaker 1: How do you feel now? What are we going to
Speaker 1: talk about for like the next six months? Like so
Speaker 1: many questions have entered my mind right now.
Speaker 2: You know, there's probably three to four things that are
Speaker 2: weighing on my mind. The first of which is, it
Speaker 2: seems like it's been a long time coming that we've
Speaker 2: known that this was a potential outcome for quite some time.
Speaker 2: It doesn't make the landing any softer when it becomes official.
Speaker 2: It hurts all the same because this is what we
Speaker 2: do on this show, this is what we talk about
Speaker 2: we I mean, you went to a Big Ten school.
Speaker 2: I went to a Pac twelve school. There is more
Speaker 2: college football obviously that we cover, but you know, there's
Speaker 2: something personal about both the Big Ten and Pac twelve
Speaker 2: to us, and the fact that these are dominos. And
Speaker 2: mind you, this is after FCS conferences. A group of
Speaker 2: five conferences I think it was ODU and UMass also
Speaker 2: in the last probably thirty six hours, have announced that
Speaker 2: they have canceled their seasons. And it comes a few
Speaker 2: days after the Big Ten with I think a lot
Speaker 2: of qualifiers announced their revised conference schedule, and that was
Speaker 2: sort of a point of confusion for a lot of people.
Speaker 2: Why announce that if you were also weighing canceling the
Speaker 2: season outright, And was that the actual word postponement that
Speaker 2: they used or was it cancelation? What was it in
Speaker 2: terms of semantics, Yeah, the semantics are postponement. So they're
Speaker 2: hopeful for a spring season, but they do know this.
Speaker 2: They are not willing to play fallse sports in the
Speaker 2: coming months. So that's what we know. And it's hard
Speaker 2: for me to hard agree, hard disagree. It's all understandable,
Speaker 2: and I will come at it from that because I
Speaker 2: know a lot of people have seen and there's a
Speaker 2: lot to unpack because we've had players speaking out across
Speaker 2: many of the Power all of the Power five conferences,
Speaker 2: highlighted by Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, these huge, huge
Speaker 2: names talking about player input into the season and that
Speaker 2: they want to play. That was a hashtag built around it,
Speaker 2: and it was very cool to see players using their voices,
Speaker 2: especially in terms of health protocols and getting representation with
Speaker 2: regard to the season. But what the Big Ten and
Speaker 2: then shortly thereafter the Pac twelve did was say we
Speaker 2: are not confident in our ability to play a season
Speaker 2: and look after our players to the best of our ability,
Speaker 2: because we don't know what the best of our ability entails.
Speaker 2: Because the novel coronavirus is just that it is new.
Speaker 2: There are unknowns, and there are obviously different tentacles on
Speaker 2: this octopus regarding liability and amateurism and optics and messaging.
Speaker 2: But this is where we arrived, and I just I'm
Speaker 2: disappointedly understanding. I am I am bummed out. I haven't
Speaker 2: even really thought about what we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: on this show, because we'll find something that's that's the
Speaker 2: least of mine. We we know how to yam or
Speaker 2: that's what we do. We can flap our gums, fine,
Speaker 2: But I feel terribly for the players and the coaches,
Speaker 2: and the families of the coaches, and everybody that works
Speaker 2: for these schools, people on broadcast teams, people covering the sport,
Speaker 2: especially Big ten and PAC twelve teams. As of the
Speaker 2: time of this recording, as you mentioned, the ACC and
Speaker 2: Big twelve and SEC have not announced anything in that
Speaker 2: direction yet. They're still sort of deliberating and figuring out
Speaker 2: why the PAC twelve and Big ten made their decisions.
Speaker 2: But there's sort of an expected hollowness to today, which
Speaker 2: I just I don't know. I find myself shrugging and
Speaker 2: figuring things are trying to figure out where we go
Speaker 2: from here, because, and we can get into this, I
Speaker 2: don't see football happening before fall of twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you are a Spring skeptic and I'm a
Speaker 1: Spring skeptic. Yeah, let's get into that momentarily. I just
Speaker 1: I think back to one of the live streams we
Speaker 1: did back in April, conversation way back when when you
Speaker 1: were still trying to figure out if you should leave
Speaker 1: New York or not, and we asked a question Marche
Speaker 1: then Yeah, yeah, we asked a question about the likelihood
Speaker 1: of this virus effect in the twenty twenty season. And
Speaker 1: I don't think either of us was so naive to
Speaker 1: think that it wouldn't, but to this extent at the
Speaker 1: time seemed almost infathomable. We had an opportunity, like as
Speaker 1: a society maybe to better control the spread here, and
Speaker 1: there are many reasons why that didn't happen, And you know,
Speaker 1: we're not going to get into all of that here
Speaker 1: on a college football show. And so this isn't a
Speaker 1: Big ten or a PAC twelve or a Mark Emmert
Speaker 1: or an NCAA problem. This is like a societal thing
Speaker 1: that we're going to have to deal with. I certainly
Speaker 1: hope that with whatever choice is made, that more people
Speaker 1: don't get sick. That's the most important thing. It sucks,
Speaker 1: sucks that we don't have college football, at least not
Speaker 1: in the Big Ten and Pac twelve that we're going
Speaker 1: to be able to talk about this fall.
Speaker 2: Buddy, we don't get Lehigh Lafayette this fall.
Speaker 1: Don't get Lehig Lafayette. There's so much much here that
Speaker 1: I think I am still processing that. It's hard to
Speaker 1: really put it all into words. But you know, we'll
Speaker 1: see what comes of it now as we move forward. So,
Speaker 1: as you said, Big ten, Pac twelve pulled the plug, Daniel.
Speaker 1: If reports are to be believed, the lynch pin in
Speaker 1: this equation on whether we get college football at all
Speaker 1: at the power five level is a Big twelve. Now,
Speaker 1: we've been dogging Bob Bowlesby for a while. Here. My
Speaker 1: dog's barking in the background. That's how much we've been
Speaker 1: dogging Bob Bowlesby. But it seems as if the ACC
Speaker 1: and the SEC want to continue with the status quo
Speaker 1: for some period of time. I'm not saying we're definitely
Speaker 1: going to play. They're just saying we need more time
Speaker 1: to figure this out. The Big Twelve is reportedly divided
Speaker 1: on whether or not to play this fall. I pulled
Speaker 1: this line from an ESPN dot com article from our
Speaker 1: friend Sam con Junior. The league appears to be on
Speaker 1: the fence at the moment, but give it and how
Speaker 1: scheduling announcements played out in recent weeks, don't expect the
Speaker 1: Big twelve to rush to a decision. It could be
Speaker 1: the last among the Power five to make a move,
Speaker 1: so you know, no one wants to be last. I
Speaker 1: guess if your last, you get your mind made up
Speaker 1: for you. But the remaining three Power five conferences are
Speaker 1: now in a bit of a bind. My guess is
Speaker 1: that more of the medical information cited by both the
Speaker 1: Big Ten and Pac twelve that led to their decision
Speaker 1: to cancel the fall season, that stuff is going to
Speaker 1: get out. It will only ratchet up the pressure on
Speaker 1: the other conferences that have yet to decide.
Speaker 2: It all sort of highlights the pretty big gulf between
Speaker 2: the conferences. I think in my mind, even though there
Speaker 2: was nothing specific pointing to this, I was imagining a
Speaker 2: big oak table with five conference commissioners discussing what they're
Speaker 2: hearing and what their plans are for a conference only
Speaker 2: schedule and when to start, and it's all fantasy. And
Speaker 2: I mean, I know there are meetings, I know there
Speaker 2: are conversations. We've heard stories like this, but this is
Speaker 2: not a traditional league, a sports league in the way
Speaker 2: that we would hope that it is. And so the
Speaker 2: Big twelve, I think there's something very important there. The
Speaker 2: Big twelve makes it if they decide not to play
Speaker 2: a majority correct, all of a sudden, it goes from
Speaker 2: being the Big ten and PAC twelve, which are all
Speaker 2: you know, this the Rose Bowl alignment and it's traditional whatever.
Speaker 2: Those two have always sort of been paired together almost
Speaker 2: like the SEC and ACC with their traditional rivalries whatever.
Speaker 2: When the Big twelve goes to the or if they
Speaker 2: go to the PAC twelve Big ten side, there is
Speaker 2: that majority, and then all of a sudden, it's like
Speaker 2: you're in the minority for playing a season. And you
Speaker 2: would think, okay, is there a monolith of medical advice
Speaker 2: that is being given to the Power five conferences? There
Speaker 2: is not. There is medical advice given to the PAC
Speaker 2: twelve and given to the Big ten, and you know
Speaker 2: there's everybody has their team of advisors and the whole
Speaker 2: industry of medicine, epidemiology, virology, whatever, that's all not a monolith.
Speaker 2: There are differing opinions, and so the SEC hears what
Speaker 2: everybody wants to hear, which is, yeah, you can play.
Speaker 2: It's fine, you got to take precautions, but it should
Speaker 2: be all right, it's worth it. The ACC apparently I
Speaker 2: saw a connection to Duke, has been hearing the same things,
Speaker 2: and so they're going with that. If you read it all.
Speaker 2: The PAC twelve released their medical advice, the summary of
Speaker 2: the medical advice that they've been receiving. It's the myocar
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get this wrong, it's myocarditis tie something like that. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's the sort of long lasting cardiac situation that can
Speaker 2: occur in the body after coronavirus. And it's really scary.
Speaker 2: And I saw the Big Ten said that ten players,
Speaker 2: I don't want to be quoted, it's ten players or
Speaker 2: ten student athletes overall have been diagnosed with it. That's
Speaker 2: super duper scary. So there is an optics element of
Speaker 2: if something goes really wrong, the SEC decides to play,
Speaker 2: or if the Big ten had decided to play, if
Speaker 2: something goes wrong, let's say, you know, God forbid people
Speaker 2: get sick, and now the number of people have hospitalized
Speaker 2: the worst that you know, we have deaths in college football.
Speaker 2: The fact is every single medical expert quote unquote medical
Speaker 2: expert is saying there's a pretty big risk here in
Speaker 2: playing college football. And some say it's worth it, some
Speaker 2: say it's not. But the optics are out there. The
Speaker 2: optics would be out there of oh, the SEC decided
Speaker 2: it was worth the risk. And here's what happened. We've
Speaker 2: seen deaths across college football and schools get hammered for negligence.
Speaker 2: And now on this scale, if a conference is willing
Speaker 2: to play, and here's the sort of absurd part of
Speaker 2: my brain, what does everything always come back to in
Speaker 2: college football? Money, money, and recruiting. And you're going to
Speaker 2: have schools if it's the SEC, if it's the Big Twelve,
Speaker 2: it's like big the Big Twelve. This conference is built
Speaker 2: with schools, right that don't care about your kid's health.
Speaker 2: The optics are disastrous if something horrible happens because of
Speaker 2: everything that's going on here. Now you have liability. You
Speaker 2: have this sort of false sense of like, oh, let
Speaker 2: players sign waivers that they're willing to play. That I
Speaker 2: mean it's never going to hold up in court, and
Speaker 2: it's kind of not kind of it's pretty damn ghoulish
Speaker 2: to begin with to have players sign that. So I
Speaker 2: get all of this from the PAC twelve and Big
Speaker 2: ten standpoint of like maybe in their hearts they believe,
Speaker 2: you know what, it's probably fine, but they're not in
Speaker 2: the probably fine business.
Speaker 1: Well that's it. This is going to happen all over
Speaker 1: college football. And the reason this is happening is because
Speaker 1: of liability, because of inconsistent protocols, ultimately because of the virus. Right,
Speaker 1: And I just think we're going to see a similar tune,
Speaker 1: you know, all throughout. I will address the one thing
Speaker 1: that you did allude to, the popular internet theory that
Speaker 1: this is all the media's fault.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's sort of a straw man among
Speaker 2: our dumbest ty.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense because without a season, a
Speaker 1: lot of folks in the media are going to be
Speaker 1: losing their jobs. Right Like do folks in the profession
Speaker 1: sometimes have an agenda?
Speaker 2: Shore of course all the time. Yeah. In this case, though,
Speaker 2: you should blame.
Speaker 1: The virus if you don't like the news, because I
Speaker 1: guarantee you that like Pete Fammel ain't working that beat
Speaker 1: for Yahoo Sports making this stuff up because he's going
Speaker 1: to get a bonus if the season gets nuked. That's
Speaker 1: not the way this works. This is already an industry
Speaker 1: that is sort of teetering on the brink. So you know,
Speaker 1: just a lot of pressure points here being pushed upon
Speaker 1: as we now start talking about season cancelations and liabilities
Speaker 1: and whatnot is crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I would also add the liability thing is
Speaker 2: interesting because a lot of people say, like, you can
Speaker 2: play the season because this is all you have to do.
Speaker 2: You test three times a week. This is how you
Speaker 2: distant student athletes from the rest of the campus population,
Speaker 2: this is how you travel is Those are all great points.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure those points in terms of rapid response
Speaker 2: testing and isolation and what do you do with four
Speaker 2: players or eleven players or twenty six players or three
Speaker 2: coaches whatever, that's not a reality that we exist within
Speaker 2: where we know those answers or we have that sort
Speaker 2: of the money, the capability, the lack of backlog for testing.
Speaker 2: The ideal world of how to play sports, it seems
Speaker 2: like it exists with the NBA, right It seems like
Speaker 2: they've done a good enough job. There are fifteen players
Speaker 2: on a team, plus support staff far less than exist.
Speaker 2: This is nothing. Everybody listening, it's nothing they don't know,
Speaker 2: but the reality of playing under these circumstances. For if
Speaker 2: it's financial, if it's just a resource a manpower thing,
Speaker 2: it doesn't align with what's actually happening. So I get it.
Speaker 2: I get that, Okay, there's a standard. We can't meet
Speaker 2: that standard. Why are we pretending? Why are we going
Speaker 2: through the motions?
Speaker 1: And it's a.
Speaker 2: Bummer that we saw schedules and I know all these
Speaker 2: conferences qualified. We're hoping, but there's a chance it might
Speaker 2: not happen. I understand all of that, but man, it's
Speaker 2: it's just your ideal world. And I obviously now I'm
Speaker 2: speaking to a straw man, but this is this is
Speaker 2: a common conversation I've heard among people I respect and
Speaker 2: you know, value their opinion within college football media or
Speaker 2: just the media at large. It doesn't align ty And
Speaker 2: you saw that in the PAC twelve report that you know,
Speaker 2: they're really hopeful that we improve to that point by
Speaker 2: the spring that we are able to sort of build
Speaker 2: a season out of nothing, almost like I think this
Speaker 2: is where you live, right, The Amish can like build
Speaker 2: a barn in like two seconds, like the teamwork to
Speaker 2: get everything together, boom bang, like a pop up season.
Speaker 2: I love I love Amash Barnes. I don't know, yea,
Speaker 2: it is a furniture thing too, right, They apparently have
Speaker 2: amazing furniture a country.
Speaker 1: My my dining room table is an Amish there you go,
Speaker 1: so table.
Speaker 2: There is that hope that we get there. I don't
Speaker 2: know if there is a specific reason to believe we
Speaker 2: are trending in that direction, given where we've been these
Speaker 2: past few months, but I don't see it. I don't
Speaker 2: see it. I like going with trends, I like going
Speaker 2: with you giving benefit of the doubt to the people
Speaker 2: who've earned it. And I just don't see it.
Speaker 1: Well, so let's address that spring season is something that again,
Speaker 1: we first I think, mentioned to each other when Chris
Speaker 1: Fowler mentioned it on his Instagram live feed right months ago,
Speaker 1: that this is a possibility, and I heard it and
Speaker 1: I said, oh, okay, that's interesting. It's a novel, a
Speaker 1: novel solution here if you want to call it. That.
Speaker 1: We're here now. We had talked about it all throughout
Speaker 1: our off season, episodes over the last couple months. Remember
Speaker 1: we had Pete Sampson on the show talking all things
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. He mentioned that he was hearing a lot
Speaker 1: about the spring season. It depends he talked to a
Speaker 1: lot of folks out there right now. I think are
Speaker 1: very like minded, Dan, They're kind of subscribing to your
Speaker 1: school thought that it doesn't seem like it's practical. I
Speaker 1: think you. I'm at it from the perspective of, well,
Speaker 1: the virus it's still going to be a thing comes
Speaker 1: spring six seven months from now. Testing vaccines like may
Speaker 1: not be where they need to be in order to
Speaker 1: actually make this thing go off. And I think that's
Speaker 1: a reasonable position. There are others who cite a different
Speaker 1: dimension of player safety, and they talk about playing two
Speaker 1: seasons in one calendar year. The body needs time to recuperate.
Speaker 1: Surely you've heard this argument as well. Rhys Davis went
Speaker 1: on a rant on ESPN earlier after this announcement. Yeah,
Speaker 1: roll Tide talking about this very thing, So I understand
Speaker 1: that perspective too.
Speaker 2: I talks about it network, Yeah, talking about how he
Speaker 2: would advise seniors or anybody with reasonable draft aspirations to
Speaker 2: fully skip a spring season and not risk it for
Speaker 2: your future.
Speaker 1: And I get that too. I totally get it. I
Speaker 1: think if we get a spring season, it's probably like
Speaker 1: a diet coke version of the normal only bangers Only
Speaker 1: you're going to have guys bolting for the NFL. I
Speaker 1: get it. What I would posit is that there is
Speaker 1: still a lot of money on the line. To your
Speaker 1: previous point, follow the money in college football, there is
Speaker 1: so much money on the line, and already a lot
Speaker 1: of it is going to be lost just because the
Speaker 1: fall season is not going to be a reality. I
Speaker 1: guarantee you there are plenty of local businesses. There are
Speaker 1: certainly networks like esper N, there are institutions that are
Speaker 1: looking to recoup as much as possible before the end
Speaker 1: of this academic year. So I just find it hard
Speaker 1: to believe that if the situation has improved to the
Speaker 1: point where cases aren't spiking in some locations around the country,
Speaker 1: and if we feel like we've got a better handle
Speaker 1: on testing protocol, on safety precautions, on vaccine development, and
Speaker 1: maybe long term risks of this virus, I think they're
Speaker 1: going to try and give it a go, even if
Speaker 1: it's a five or six game bangers on only slate Dan.
Speaker 1: I think they will give it a go, provided we
Speaker 1: are in something of a better place than we are now,
Speaker 1: and Lord knows, we better be. We better be nine February.
Speaker 1: It'll be really nice. We hope there's no second wave.
Speaker 1: I know we're entering the winter months here, but presumably
Speaker 1: if we can do better then we're doing right now.
Speaker 1: I would think, after months of financial hardship in this
Speaker 1: particular industry, that there's going to be a huge impetus
Speaker 1: to try and get some version of a season off
Speaker 1: the ground. That's why I'm not counting it out.
Speaker 2: I believe it will be discussed in earnest. I believe
Speaker 2: that they are going to try and by day I
Speaker 2: mean whatever, conference commissioners, school presidents, whatever. I believe it
Speaker 2: will be discussed in earnest. I am not a big
Speaker 2: believer in the situation surrounding the sport. Just again, I
Speaker 2: give the benefit of the doubt to those who've earned it.
Speaker 2: There's no central body mandating things, and we've seen that
Speaker 2: affecting how now the Big ten and PAC twelve have
Speaker 2: gone about their business, whereas the SEC and ACC are saying, yeah,
Speaker 2: we're gonna We're gonna sort of hold firm and see
Speaker 2: what happens. And so when you don't have that sort
Speaker 2: of consensus, and okay, so what happens if the SEC
Speaker 2: and ACC are they gonna play ten games in the fall?
Speaker 2: Is there going to be a playoff if everything goes
Speaker 2: all right?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Is does that mean the PAC twelve and Big ten
Speaker 2: are still going to play in the spring if everything
Speaker 2: goes off all right in the fall. There are so
Speaker 2: many moving pieces where it's hard to even consider college
Speaker 2: football like this standalone entity. So now we're split into
Speaker 2: these five Power five factions plus some G five conferences
Speaker 2: who as of this time, have not announced anything in
Speaker 2: terms of cancelation. I just you have to have so
Speaker 2: much organization, and you have to have the surrounding situation
Speaker 2: be so much better. And whether it's a vaccine, whether
Speaker 2: it's people really taking things a lot more seriously from
Speaker 2: the top down than they have these past few months,
Speaker 2: maybe maybe tie, But I think people are I think
Speaker 2: the people with the power are going to say, especially
Speaker 2: and this is a tentacle we haven't really discussed yet,
Speaker 2: especially with the looming question and issue of player empowerment
Speaker 2: and amateurism and assuming a lot more risk. And I
Speaker 2: know people are also quick, Oh this is my strawman argument.
Speaker 2: People are quick to point out, well, this is an
Speaker 2: age group. These are young, strong, young men who are
Speaker 2: not affected in the way that perhaps older, more immunal
Speaker 2: compromise people are affected. Well, if you are to believe
Speaker 2: the PAC twelve Medical Advisory Board, that's not fully true.
Speaker 2: In any case, they're assuming more risk, and scholarships have value,
Speaker 2: room and board, cost of living, all these things have value,
Speaker 2: cost of attendance, they all have value assuming more risk
Speaker 2: than usual, which is irrefutable for no more reward and
Speaker 2: a pretty when you see coaches and athletic directors talking
Speaker 2: about how big of a financial hit they're going to
Speaker 2: take in the context of why they really have to
Speaker 2: see if they should they should be playing football. I
Speaker 2: think what Scott Frost said, Nebraska might be in the
Speaker 2: hole between eighty and one hundred and twenty million dollars
Speaker 2: if there's no football season. When we see those statements,
Speaker 2: it is eye opening to the players. If you see,
Speaker 2: you know, the Big twelve United are Big ten United,
Speaker 2: PAC twelve United, and the Power five United, it's become
Speaker 2: clear that like we don't have any we don't have
Speaker 2: any say in this. We don't have any say in
Speaker 2: this at all. And so what have we learned about
Speaker 2: conference commissioners and those in power? They like kicking the
Speaker 2: can where tie as far down the road as possible,
Speaker 2: as far down the road as possible, And that is
Speaker 2: not spring. It just isn't. To me.
Speaker 1: The one caveat there is I think the way the
Speaker 1: players have united, and that the voice behind the player movement,
Speaker 1: led by the likes of Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields,
Speaker 1: whether they intended to or not, they've become the face
Speaker 1: of this. I think that in and of itself will
Speaker 1: have a real lasting impact on college football. We talk
Speaker 1: a lot about well, what's going to be the takeaway
Speaker 1: after all this is said and done. My guess is
Speaker 1: that the players finding their collective voice is going to
Speaker 1: have a pretty outsized impact moving forward. This truly has
Speaker 1: highlighted a number of faults in the system, and so,
Speaker 1: you know, how does that relate to spring, How does
Speaker 1: that relate to player safety? Potentially with playing two seasons
Speaker 1: in one calendar year. You know, we'll see which direction
Speaker 1: this movement goes from here. But my hunch and assumption
Speaker 1: is that we have not heard the last of it.
Speaker 1: These are not topics that are going away, nor, by
Speaker 1: the way, are any of the other items here that
Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence tweeted out that was retweeted by the President. Right,
Speaker 1: we want to play football this season. That's still going
Speaker 1: to be true in spring. Maybe not if you're an
Speaker 1: NFL prospect, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe not for Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 1: But yeah, establish universal mandated health and safety procedures and
Speaker 1: protocols to protect college athletes against COVID nineteen among all
Speaker 1: conferences throughout the NCAA. Seems like that's still going to
Speaker 1: be true. Yeah, give players the opportunity to opt out
Speaker 1: and respect their decision, going to be true. Guarantee eligibility
Speaker 1: whether a player chooses to play the season or not.
Speaker 1: I already mentioned the association bit. I think all of
Speaker 1: these important topics are going to persist, whether we have
Speaker 1: a season in the spring of twenty twenty one, the
Speaker 1: fall of twenty twenty one, or if we got to
Speaker 1: wait till twenty twenty two. Like, this stuff is not
Speaker 1: going away, Dan.
Speaker 2: No, And by the way, I did see just with
Speaker 2: regard to what you just mentioned in terms of the
Speaker 2: asks from the we are united. Ohio State has done
Speaker 2: a really good job. They came out and talked about
Speaker 2: the protocols that they've had for student athletes and football players.
Speaker 2: Those are staying in place that you know, access to
Speaker 2: tutoring and dorms and all that is staying in place
Speaker 2: because there was that concern that a college campus or
Speaker 2: the specific kind of college experience that major college football
Speaker 2: players have is better and more structure than what they
Speaker 2: would be experiencing if they were going home. So the
Speaker 2: thing I'd really like to see if the health and
Speaker 2: safety of college athletes, specific to football players on this show,
Speaker 2: but in general college athletes, if that's so important that
Speaker 2: we cannot play, we cannot risk things. They have to
Speaker 2: go so far above and beyond on campus to ensure
Speaker 2: that this continues. Because you can't out of one side
Speaker 2: of your mouth say we're looking out for the health
Speaker 2: and safety contact sport. It's too important for these guys.
Speaker 2: We're looking after them. We got to do what's in
Speaker 2: the best interest of them and then send them home.
Speaker 2: You have to take steps to make sure on campus,
Speaker 2: off campus, whatever there is structure there is. You know,
Speaker 2: maybe it's more of a spring football situation where there's
Speaker 2: practices and scrimmages within everybody, and that there is contact
Speaker 2: tracing and reasonable bubbles, but those bubbles are probably going
Speaker 2: to be popped to whatever extent, But that steps are
Speaker 2: being taken to maximize the health and well being of
Speaker 2: college athletes, not just when there is a season, but
Speaker 2: also when the season is canceled. That's what I'd like
Speaker 2: to see, because it's a total garbage move. If all
Speaker 2: of the Sudden Cal athletes are just sent home, or
Speaker 2: Minnesota athletes are sent home, Penn State athletes are sent home,
Speaker 2: you're not looking after them. Then you're really not doing
Speaker 2: them a service by saying you can't play. But also,
Speaker 2: you know now our hands are cleaned, see you next year.
Speaker 2: That's just garbage, I think I agree.
Speaker 1: I would ask that folks out there right in Solidverbo
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com, let us know what your thoughts
Speaker 1: are now that the season for at least the Big
Speaker 1: Ten and Pac twelve is done. So let's play it
Speaker 1: subject a little humor here do you think will happen
Speaker 1: with the other conferences? What do you think should happen
Speaker 1: in the world of college football? How do you feel
Speaker 1: about a spring season? You can either email US sliverbalotgmail
Speaker 1: dot com. You can call in for a weight verbal one.
Speaker 1: We're going to open the reverbal line here because yeah,
Speaker 1: not sure when we'll open it next.
Speaker 2: I think they are all wanting to play, like they're
Speaker 2: not wanting to play in a certain way, like we
Speaker 2: will play. This protocol has met this protocols, they'll want
Speaker 2: to play. They all intend to play at six pm
Speaker 2: Central time on Tuesday, what's the eleventh of August. Yes,
Speaker 2: there there are going to be certain things at play.
Speaker 2: There are going to be certain optics at play where
Speaker 2: if all of a sudden, there's an outbreak at a
Speaker 2: fall camp at I'm just making this up TCU or
Speaker 2: NC state, that's like a serious, serious, thirty four players
Speaker 2: kind of thing, then it becomes very very difficult. I
Speaker 2: don't think they're going to push through through a nightmare scenario.
Speaker 1: I really don't.
Speaker 2: I think there is going to be a tipping point.
Speaker 2: They're not going to push through no matter what. But
Speaker 2: I believe all three are going to try to play. Ultimately.
Speaker 2: I think something's going to happen in one of those
Speaker 2: conferences that's going to tip it in the Big ten
Speaker 2: or Pac twelve's direction. That's my guess. Total guests.
Speaker 1: We should also add here, not to be outdone, the
Speaker 1: Mountain West canceled their fall season. We saw separate announcements
Speaker 1: from UMass and Old Dominion, both of which have canceled
Speaker 1: their fall season. They're going to explore the season in
Speaker 1: the spring quote if feasible. This has been a recurring theme.
Speaker 1: We've talked about the trickle up effect on this show
Speaker 1: ever since the Ivy League announced its intentions. We have
Speaker 1: seen that filter its way back up to the Power
Speaker 1: five ranks now with the Big Ten making its announcement.
Speaker 1: For those wondering, the Big Ten is significant because the
Speaker 1: Big Ten is literally the richest conference, It's the richest
Speaker 1: in terms of money. For them to come out and
Speaker 1: announce first, it definitely lays down a marker.
Speaker 2: Can we and I'm sort of putting you on the
Speaker 2: spot here because it's not like we prep this at all,
Speaker 2: But it's one of those things where I really haven't
Speaker 2: fully unpacked I haven't parted the information kimono here on
Speaker 2: this yet, but can we talk briefly about what we
Speaker 2: now won't have? Is that too depressing right now? In
Speaker 2: terms of like team by team storyline, player interesting new pathway,
Speaker 2: like I was specifically looking forward to Joe Morehead running
Speaker 2: an Oregon offense. Joe Moorehead moved his family from Mississippi
Speaker 2: to Eugene, Oregon to coach Oregon this fall. I don't
Speaker 2: get to see that. As an Oregon fan. I don't
Speaker 2: get to see the maybe most talented, most dangerous looking
Speaker 2: Oregon defense of the modern era. That's a bumber to
Speaker 2: me as an Oregon fan, and I guess for people
Speaker 2: that are moderately interested in college football nationally, don't get
Speaker 2: to see the first year of Jimmy Lake in Seattle
Speaker 2: taking over for Chris Peter. Don't get to see Nick Rolovich,
Speaker 2: although that might be okay, it's okay. Don't get to
Speaker 2: see Jonathan Smith and Oregon State's improvement and building a nice,
Speaker 2: interesting defense. Your guy Chase Garber is at CAL. We
Speaker 2: don't get to see year two of Keaton slovas a
Speaker 2: potential Heisman candidate at USC, year two of Jaden Daniels
Speaker 2: at ASU. We don't get to see how Utah reloads
Speaker 2: after a pretty fantastic twenty nineteen in the Big Ten.
Speaker 2: Michael Parsons had already opted out, but that Penn State
Speaker 2: team in terms of what they are returning on both
Speaker 2: sides of the ball. Pretty loaded, right.
Speaker 1: Pretty loaded. I think Justin Fields is a goner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I mean, we've seen the last of Justin
Speaker 2: Fields in Ohio State uniform. Unless I mean that could
Speaker 2: be like a I'm trying to think of recently at
Speaker 2: Tebow Mariota. I mean, Tibo didn't have the NFL prospect situation.
Speaker 2: You know, Matt Barkley returned after thinking I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't hard to see a situation in which Justin
Speaker 1: Fields is going to be back in Columbus. I think
Speaker 1: he's in effect a pro football player this day forward.
Speaker 1: You know, we already saw the likes over Shan Bateman
Speaker 1: in the Big Ten. Declare ron Dale Moore declared shortly
Speaker 1: after we hit the stop button, I think on our
Speaker 1: last podcast. So some of these big names that have
Speaker 1: an NFL future, we've certainly seen the last of them.
Speaker 2: But you know, just a lot of Raka running the
Speaker 2: Penn State offense. Kurt t I Roka.
Speaker 1: I was going to say a lot of lingering questions
Speaker 1: around some of those top teams in the Big Ten.
Speaker 1: You know, we have a lot of fun talking about
Speaker 1: the Michigan Wolverines and ribbing at fans a little bit,
Speaker 1: but genuine curiosity over here around what that team was
Speaker 1: going to look like a different quarterback and you know
Speaker 1: some of the changes I know that they were making.
Speaker 1: So it's Mel Tucker at State, Mel Talker team in
Speaker 1: year one. Yeah, just it sucks, and you know, nobody
Speaker 1: telling Nebraska. I think Nebraska still thinks it might be
Speaker 1: able to play and if they can find a way
Speaker 1: to do it safely, then Winnipeg Blue Bombers, more power
Speaker 1: to Saskatchewan Roughriders, BC Lions, Tron Argos, Nebraska carn a
Speaker 1: lot of questions that we had I think started to
Speaker 1: prepare in advance of the Big Ten previous show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Nebraska themselves. They hired they hired a
Speaker 2: new offensive coordinator in Matt Lubick, who had coached with
Speaker 2: Scott frosted Oregon really successfully. That would have been interesting
Speaker 2: to see if they took a were to take a
Speaker 2: step forward on offense. I mean across the Big Ten.
Speaker 2: I mean Wisconsin, you know who replaces Jonathan Taylor? What
Speaker 2: is that? And I mean we know what that offense
Speaker 2: would have looked like. But you know, does Northwestern bounce
Speaker 2: back with an okay offense. Maybe probably it's a bummer
Speaker 2: because we really didn't begin to think about what interested
Speaker 2: us about the twenty twenty Big twelve or Big ten
Speaker 2: in Pact twelve seasons. But now that even just on
Speaker 2: this show, reflecting on what is just vanishing into thin air,
Speaker 2: I'm even sadder, and I'm sorry I brought it up.
Speaker 2: I really am, like there are just there are too
Speaker 2: many who starts at quarterback from Maryland. Josh Jackson opted
Speaker 2: out right correct and Talia Tungovailoa was given immediate eligibility.
Speaker 2: What does Greg Schiano's returned to Rutgers look like. I
Speaker 2: know Rutgers has been a particularly bad situation for public
Speaker 2: health recently, but you know, brought in a bunch of
Speaker 2: big name transfers Michigan, Ohio State guys could have been
Speaker 2: a little spicy by the end of the year.
Speaker 1: It's tough, yeah, and you look around college football. I
Speaker 1: had some time on my hands this afternoon. I watched
Speaker 1: some of the ESPN coverage. I think Kirk Curve Street
Speaker 1: and Rhys Davis everyone that they had on brought up
Speaker 1: really good points. You know, nobody was arguing necessarily for
Speaker 1: or against this decision, just talking about what it means
Speaker 1: in context. And my guess is that we're going to
Speaker 1: have a lot of time to reflect on exactly what
Speaker 1: it means to us because there is likely more of
Speaker 1: this to come. Hope I'm wrong, likely more of this
Speaker 1: to come.
Speaker 2: I just thought about a fall without Michael Conningham hurtsty
Speaker 2: but I get it all right, So more to come.
Speaker 2: We are back later in the week, and I don't
Speaker 2: know that we'll have good news, but I think we'll
Speaker 2: have some kind of news, and I think we'll have
Speaker 2: more clarity, which is at least a positive sort of
Speaker 2: silver lining type situation in a tie. I had to
Speaker 2: live through a dad itcha the other day. Do you
Speaker 2: know what that is? In line? Thunderstorm? Yeah, Midwest is different, man.
Speaker 2: When we were out in California Jodie with an, I
Speaker 2: was like, do you guys have summer storms? Is that like?
Speaker 2: When does that happen?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Uh eighty three? And Sonny, my friend, that's what it's
Speaker 2: like every day. So I experienced the first one of
Speaker 2: those and it was it was fine. Somebody asked me,
Speaker 2: a friend of mine in California, when I said that
Speaker 2: we got a tornado warning. He was like, oh, you
Speaker 2: go down to the basement. And I asked my wife
Speaker 2: and she's like, now, you don't go to the baby.
Speaker 2: If you hear sirens, if your alarms, then you go
Speaker 2: to the basement. Apparently, so that's all new to me.
Speaker 2: So Midwesterners, let me know how to proceed with weather
Speaker 2: situations in the late summer, fall and winter, because it's
Speaker 2: apparently different. The lake effect is a thing that I
Speaker 2: have never been used to. Hey, not just Midwest things,
Speaker 2: but yeah, it has been twelve years since, Yeah, you
Speaker 2: want to get sentimental, twelve.
Speaker 1: Years since I last had a Saturday in the fall
Speaker 1: where I could like go out and do normal stuff
Speaker 1: without having one eye glued to the TV.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm going to miss those text messages of like
Speaker 2: I'm at my cousin's baptism, I'm sneaking the Michigan State
Speaker 2: Michigan game underneath a pew. What am I missing? I'm
Speaker 2: on a delay here? What's going on?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Those were good texts.
Speaker 1: Now we're going to have to take up golf or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: We're getting in shape, That's what I've been tweet and
Speaker 2: Shaman Tai do you not getting Yeah, you're getting cartoonishly yoked. Okay,
Speaker 2: do you have given your physical limitations? I want to
Speaker 2: end the show on a happy note. Do you have
Speaker 2: a an area for improvement that you'd like to target
Speaker 2: this fall.
Speaker 1: An area for improvement?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You want to look at you want to work
Speaker 2: on your arms? You want legs, you want core? Do
Speaker 2: you want stamina? Do you want high end speed? What
Speaker 2: do you look into?
Speaker 1: A well? Who doesn't want high end speed? But I
Speaker 1: would say I would like to do some flexibility training. Okay. Pliometrics, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean if that's what that is, but something some
Speaker 1: sort of flexibility training I think would go a long way.
Speaker 2: How are you with yoga?
Speaker 1: Oh god, no, no, I've never done yoga, probably for
Speaker 1: good reason.
Speaker 2: All right. Pliometrics are maximum force in short intervals.
Speaker 1: That's a little bit different.
Speaker 2: It's increasing power, speed, strength. Okay, flexibility you would do
Speaker 2: good with Yoga's great?
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we're gonna have time.
Speaker 2: I'd like just this, aren't we And we're gonna have
Speaker 2: plenty of plenty of time. I'd like to get back
Speaker 2: out on the tennis court. That's that's a specific thing
Speaker 2: because it's a really good, socially distant sport. Tie sure,
Speaker 2: and I know a couple of tennis players out here,
Speaker 2: So that's what I'm aiming to do. But I guess
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to go inside at a certain point
Speaker 2: in tennis there. But that's my goal. That's my goal,
Speaker 2: get back on the tennis court. I have some some
Speaker 2: respecs I've been.
Speaker 1: Of course, you do.
Speaker 2: I've been itching to throw on. Ready, we're talking about
Speaker 2: a high level high school player here, ty, come on,
Speaker 2: it's true, all right, that's all I.
Speaker 1: Have solid verbal at gmail dot com. Don't forget to
Speaker 1: write in. Let us know your thoughts on the matter.
Speaker 1: More to come, I would expect, So keep that email
Speaker 1: address handy. Also keep four oh eight verbal one in
Speaker 1: your speed dial. That's four oh eight eight three seven
Speaker 1: two two five one. Give us a hollower. We're gonna
Speaker 1: cut all those up. We'll play them on our Thursday show,
Speaker 1: and we'll continue to use the reverblind wherever possible. Now
Speaker 1: that we're all kind of going through this together, we
Speaker 1: appreciate you downloading the show. If you haven't already subscribed,
Speaker 1: please do so out on Spotify, on Apple, on Google.
Speaker 1: Leave us a review if you like the show. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we don't know what this means for us, just in
Speaker 1: terms of a recording schedule. We do know that we're
Speaker 1: going to continue recording for the foreseeable future. We have
Speaker 1: no reason not to. This is cathartic Dan, for me,
Speaker 1: cathartic for you. We need to talk to each other
Speaker 1: at least once a week, at.
Speaker 2: Least starting next week washed Wednesdays. Tips for the person
Speaker 2: growing older and more tired constantly.
Speaker 1: For that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
Speaker 1: For myself, Tie Hildebrand, thanks again for downloading the show.
Speaker 2: We'll talk to.
Speaker 1: You in a few days. In the meantime, stay safe,
Speaker 1: stay solid, Peace,