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Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal hull.

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Speaker 2: For me, I'm a man, I'm forty.

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Speaker 3: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to

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Speaker 3: be happy. You want to be happy for dake Edo State?

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Speaker 4: Is that? Whoo whoo? And no them and tie Dan Rubinstee,

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Speaker 4: we come on the airwaves today, shortling over some audio

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Speaker 4: editing that you did that you may unveil at some point,

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Speaker 4: maybe not this episode, but as the season gets a

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Speaker 4: little closer.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, what we do during the season is we nickname.

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Speaker 3: We try to nickname. We attempt to nickname each and

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Speaker 3: every Saturday based on the matchups, based on the vibes

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Speaker 3: of that week and what it might mean for the

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Speaker 3: bigger narratives of the season, and so generally speaking, early

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Speaker 3: in the week, I will do like the Aaron Sorkin

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Speaker 3: long Shower brainstorm thing, and I'll think about where my

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Speaker 3: mind is going with regard to, oh, it's Nora Scalinois week,

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Speaker 3: and what does that have in common with ASU Texas

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Speaker 3: Tech Week? And I'll just think about what's on the

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Speaker 3: line that week, and then I'll come up with something

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Speaker 3: generally with an S or A you know the CS.

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Speaker 2: Sound, and you know, we alliterate and go from there.

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Speaker 3: And I just thought of something that made me laugh

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Speaker 3: today and I immediately went down to the very silly

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Speaker 3: audio lab and made it. And I don't know when

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Speaker 3: we'll use it. I think we're going to use it

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Speaker 3: going into week one. Honestly, we couldn't want to hold

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Speaker 3: onto it.

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Speaker 5: We could No, there's no reason to keep an ace

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Speaker 5: like that up your sleeve. By the way, I'm ready

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Speaker 5: willing and able to fully seed control of the Saturday

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Speaker 5: naming over to you.

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Speaker 2: Oh that's it.

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Speaker 5: I think you're better at it. I think we can

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Speaker 5: just kind of give that over to you. Maybe I

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Speaker 5: can steal another part of our preview content and make

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Speaker 5: it my own. The window of opportunity. I think I'm

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Speaker 5: a little better at that anyway, definitely, so we can

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Speaker 5: make that trade here now. If you're cool with that.

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Speaker 3: I'm absolutely great with that. I would love to be

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Speaker 3: the Saturday's are the Saturday namings are good?

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Speaker 1: I think we got it.

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Speaker 5: Well, Hey, welcome back in. I'm ty he is Dan.

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Speaker 5: This is a solid verb. But we've got an interview

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Speaker 5: that Dan conducted last week with our friend Bill Connolly

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Speaker 5: from ESPN dot com on deck here in just a

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Speaker 5: few moments I had a chance, of course, because I

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Speaker 5: put the episodes together to listen to the conversation that

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Speaker 5: you guys had a lot of really interesting stuff from Bill. Yes,

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Speaker 5: of course, and it's stuff that we touched on through

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Speaker 5: the course of our own previews. Granted, some of that

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Speaker 5: did come from him in the previews that he put

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Speaker 5: together to help us get ready for and help really

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Speaker 5: all of college football get ready for what's about to

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Speaker 5: happen here in the twenty twenty five season. But the

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Speaker 5: SP plus rankings with a bunch of teams clumped together

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Speaker 5: at the top, we've got new quarterbacks, we've got new

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Speaker 5: offensive lines in some cases, we've got whole new rosters

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Speaker 5: that Bill tries to get his head around. And he's

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Speaker 5: got a new book coming out here shortly called Forward

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Speaker 5: Progress that he gets into a little bit with you

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Speaker 5: that we have had the good fortune of seeing in advance.

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Speaker 5: But hopefully you guys out there can hear what Bill

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Speaker 5: has to say and pick up a copy for yourself,

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Speaker 5: because of course we have Bill on all the time.

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Speaker 5: He's like our authority for all things thoughtful with regard

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Speaker 5: to college football statistics, with regard to college football, one

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Speaker 5: of our favorite guests, So glad we're able to have

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Speaker 5: him back on.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: One of the questions, or one of the parts of

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Speaker 3: the questions I asked him, was sort of alluding to

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Speaker 3: the fact that, you know, if what Purdue does in

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Speaker 3: overhauling their roster, or West Virginia or Southern miss any

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Speaker 3: of these schools that have added dozens upon dozens of

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Speaker 3: new players, generally with a new coach, that it might

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Speaker 3: prove who is the actual best at scouting Conference USA

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Speaker 3: for potential transfers, Like who is that talent scout for

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Speaker 3: the Mountain West. And this I don't say this in

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Speaker 3: any sort of like gleaming like fun way. It's kind

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Speaker 3: of depressing when you think about it, that like who

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Speaker 3: is the best at identifying and pillaging talent and perceive

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Speaker 3: lesser conferences? But it did make me realize that the

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Speaker 3: more money schools have, they're going to have somebody specific

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Speaker 3: like it's just going to be Texas's Mountain West guy

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Speaker 3: who is on that staff or gal on that staff.

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Speaker 3: It's like, your job is to watch this conference week

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Speaker 3: in and week out, identify people who could succeed at

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Speaker 3: Texas and figure out if there might be competitive or

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Speaker 3: financial interest down the line throughout this season, contacting whoever

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Speaker 3: you need to contact that there's just going to be

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Speaker 3: a Conference USA point person for all of these huge programs,

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Speaker 3: which is both super interesting and kind of a bummer.

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Speaker 3: Which what's more college football than that?

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Speaker 2: Right now?

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Speaker 5: Just a little bit predatory, yeah, to say the least,

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Speaker 5: But we are where we are if you are new here,

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Speaker 5: even if you're not new here, if you have yet

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Speaker 5: to hit the follow or subscribe button, please do so.

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Speaker 1: We've already started ramping up.

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Speaker 5: We will continue doing so, being that there is a

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Speaker 5: small slate of games yes this coming weekend, which we

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Speaker 5: will dive into on our next episode.

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Speaker 1: So hit the file, subscribe, rate, leave a review.

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Speaker 5: All that stuff helps of course, going out to verballers

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Speaker 5: dot com v E R B A L L e

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Speaker 5: r s dot com. We got a bunch of new

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Speaker 5: folks sign up. That's where you get the ad free episodes,

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Speaker 5: the bonus content, the game, the pick Them game that

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Speaker 5: I am in the process of getting set up, Discord

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Speaker 5: access voting rights for some of the stuff that we

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Speaker 5: talk about on Tuesday, which we can get into a

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Speaker 5: little bit more maybe on our next episode. Just a

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Speaker 5: whole bunch of fun stuff going on. If you want

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Speaker 5: to join the verballers dot com community again, five dollars tiers,

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Speaker 5: ten dollars tiers, or a free tier. If you just

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Speaker 5: want to dip your toe in, see what it's all about. Look,

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Speaker 5: no pressure, we're all friends here, but you should know

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Speaker 5: that your support goes a long way. So thank you

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Speaker 5: in advance for even considering it. Just go and check

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Speaker 5: out the website see if it's for you. If not,

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Speaker 5: you can still listen here any time you want.

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Speaker 3: It's all good, Yes, absolutely no, And you know what

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna do, By the way, this year, don't tell Bill.

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Speaker 3: Everybody be cool. Who's listening to this? Don't tell Bill Connolly.

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Speaker 3: But I've done this a couple of times in the

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Speaker 3: discord at verballers dot com v E R B A

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Speaker 3: L L e r s dot com that's accessible only

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Speaker 3: to those of you that are helping to keep the

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Speaker 3: factory open, the content Factory tie. I'm gonna do a

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Speaker 3: little bit of on demand Bill Connolly sp plus uh

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Speaker 3: team profile revealing. Oh okay, So if if you're somebody

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Speaker 3: who is like, hey, you know what, don't tell Bill.

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Speaker 2: Don't tell Bill.

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Speaker 3: If you are somebody by Forward Progress right now at

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Speaker 3: Amazon dot com or bookshop dot org. If you are

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Speaker 3: somebody who is like I'd love to know more about

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Speaker 3: you know, USF and some of their defensive metrics this season.

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Speaker 3: Pop over, I've got youa Forballers dot com. How about

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Speaker 3: that beautiful, beautiful.

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Speaker 1: Well, without further ado, why don't we get to that interview?

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Speaker 3: And with that, I am now joined by Bill Connolly

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Speaker 3: of ESPNESPN dot com, the proprietor of the sp plus

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Speaker 3: all encompassing good times with college football numbers. That's how

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Speaker 3: it's written out right.

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Speaker 6: Sp AEGT n plus yes exactly, and owns a tote

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Speaker 6: bag we got at S and P Diner Deli or

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Speaker 6: something in New York, which is delicious.

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Speaker 3: And now the author of well, he's already been off

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Speaker 3: of published author, but the author of the new and

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Speaker 3: forthcoming book Forward Progress release date. Remind me, tell people

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Speaker 3: where to buy it. Remind me so that you get

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Speaker 3: the most.

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Speaker 7: Dollars September second. I'm sure like buying from Amazon doesn't

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Speaker 7: guarantee the most dollars, but it also guarantees the most exposure,

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Speaker 7: because that's the entire way you sell a book. In

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Speaker 7: twenty twenty five is rigged the Amazon algorithm by going

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Speaker 7: on podcasts, So.

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Speaker 3: So buy two copies, one on Amazon and one on

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Speaker 3: wherever Bill shows.

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Speaker 7: Bookshop dot org is good too, Apparently if you pre

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Speaker 7: order on bookshop you might just come who have already

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Speaker 7: just been getting their books.

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Speaker 2: So great.

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Speaker 3: Release dates are just kind of theoretical, and that's fine.

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Speaker 3: I'm good gets people hyped for the season. Okay, so

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Speaker 3: we are, I don't know. I'm looking at the date here,

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Speaker 3: about eight days as we record this, ahead of week zero,

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Speaker 3: so a couple of weeks ahead of week one.

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Speaker 2: What is front of mine right now?

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Speaker 7: Well, I mean the biggest thing is that the season

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Speaker 7: is allowed to start because I am officially mentally ready.

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Speaker 7: We start of August every year. I'm like, boy, I

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Speaker 7: don't know, and I need some I'm not ready. I

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Speaker 7: need some more, but I'm ready now. I got my

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Speaker 7: small skull projection set up. I'm in a good mood.

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Speaker 7: You know, everything's everything's ready. So I am allowing the

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Speaker 7: season to start in Dublin on in just a few days,

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Speaker 7: so I can't wait. Yeah, that's that's the main thing.

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Speaker 7: You know, if we're getting specific, you know, two things

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Speaker 7: all my little preseason writing material of late, like two

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Speaker 7: things have stood out pretty consistently number one, like even

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Speaker 7: you know, I tamp down tap down the top ratings

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Speaker 7: at spplus even further, just playing with kind of you know,

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Speaker 7: playing with how things should have worked in previous seasons,

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Speaker 7: looking at early spreads, things like that, And now like

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Speaker 7: twelve teams are within one touchdown of number one. That's fantastic,

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Speaker 7: Like obviously there's a chance one of these super talented

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Speaker 7: teams just clicks and everything and they pull away. But

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Speaker 7: right now, on paper, you know, Texas last week was

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Speaker 7: ranked number one of the AP pole in My first

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Speaker 7: reaction was, man, they are overrated, And then I realized

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Speaker 7: I was going to think that about literally anybody totally.

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Speaker 7: We have a whole bunch of threes, fours and fives,

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Speaker 7: no number one, no obvious number one who should be

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Speaker 7: number one. So it's going to be really interesting in

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Speaker 7: that regard. And I guess the other thing, like a

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Speaker 7: correllaray to, that is part of the reason we have

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Speaker 7: all these teams kind of in a weird place is

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Speaker 7: young new quarterbacks everywhere, and guys run around a lot

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Speaker 7: and get hit, and some of them are gonna get

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Speaker 7: hurt and some of them are gonna be spectacular, and

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Speaker 7: who the hell knows which who goes into what bucket.

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Speaker 7: It's gonna be a lot of fun.

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Speaker 3: I think my sort of working theory on who is

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Speaker 3: actually good and who might be good and who isn't good.

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Speaker 3: It's the combination of proven good quarterback and proven good defense,

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Speaker 3: and you can sort of fill in the blanks so

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Speaker 3: one around that there's one team. And even then, like

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Speaker 3: you still have questions about Clemson, right, you still like

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Speaker 3: Clemson last year.

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Speaker 7: State, I'm the Clemson hater of the offseason. I'm talking

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Speaker 7: about Penn State. Oh but everything else you just said applies.

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Speaker 3: See, I'm okay, you're right, I should say Clemson and

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Speaker 3: Penn State. The Tom Allen Express Rail is what connects

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Speaker 3: those two teams. But okay, you're right, but even those

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Speaker 3: two teams, right, even that quarterback didn't complete a pass

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Speaker 3: to a receiver, And even that Clemson quarterback got better

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Speaker 3: as the season went on and had a good playoff game,

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Speaker 3: but wasn't like crazy consistent downfield. That defense didn't stop

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Speaker 3: the run all the time. And all of this is

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Speaker 3: to say amazing because we don't have like a handle

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Speaker 3: on the top ten twelve fifteen. That's great, Yes, yeah, No,

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Speaker 3: I mean we have two birds in hand, and there

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Speaker 3: are flawed birds in hand, and a whole bunch of

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Speaker 3: teams with major upside who might just kind of face

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Speaker 3: plant because their quarterback situation is so weird at the moment.

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Speaker 3: So like even Arch, Like that's the thing. I know

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Speaker 3: why Texas was number one, Right, it's Arch. It's Arch's turn.

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Speaker 7: He's been ready. We've been talking about this guy for

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Speaker 7: five years. It's his moment. He's going to be amazing.

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Speaker 7: He's gonna win the Heisman. The only player to ever

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Speaker 7: have fewer career passing yards and be the Heisman favorite

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Speaker 7: is too. Right after that the national title touchdown pass.

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Speaker 7: That's the only time anybody has ever had like less

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Speaker 7: than a thousand yards but started off the Heisman favorite.

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Speaker 7: So we're in a weird territory here too. It didn't

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Speaker 7: win the that Heisman that year. Alabama didn't win the

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Speaker 7: title that year, although they came very close. They were very,

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Speaker 7: very good in twenty eighteen. But no, I like, you know,

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Speaker 7: even Arch, the sample we got last year was epic upside.

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Speaker 7: That UTSA game was like the best small sample performance

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Speaker 7: in the history of college football, and then Louisiana Unroe

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Speaker 7: bates him into a ton of mistakes, and then every

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Speaker 7: time he takes a stap against Georgia, he's sacked within

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Speaker 7: about a half second. And they have a brand new

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Speaker 7: offensive line this year. So like, even with Arch, he

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Speaker 7: could be absolutely amazing, just as everybody's predicting. But even

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Speaker 7: he's not a guarantee. And you know, if he's not amazing,

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Speaker 7: if Julian Saying looks like a red shirt freshman sometimes,

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Speaker 7: if Ty Simpson reminds us that there's a reason why

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Speaker 7: he wasn't starting even when Milroe was struggling in the

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Speaker 7: last couple of years, Like, none of this is guaranteed.

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Speaker 7: So yeah, and this is all I ask for. I

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Speaker 7: don't want to know think I know who it's going

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Speaker 7: to win the national title before the season starts, totally.

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Speaker 3: And one of the things we've been talking about is

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Speaker 3: how little we can be confident in going into the

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Speaker 3: year with how crazy rosters are and how you know,

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Speaker 3: up in the air quarterback is not even just among

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Speaker 3: top teams but kind of everywhere in your studying. We

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Speaker 3: you know, we've done our preview season we've completed all that.

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Speaker 3: But in your estimation, is there a team that has

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Speaker 3: the widest possible variety of outcomes? There are fascinating teams

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Speaker 3: that like the upside is clear, but sometimes teams don't.

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Speaker 3: Like the floor is still high, right, Like LSU is

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Speaker 3: probably not gonna go four and eight, But like who

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Speaker 3: has that combination of high ceiling and low floor that

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Speaker 3: makes you say I'm going to watch them a ton

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Speaker 3: because of that?

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Speaker 7: That's a good question. When you started the question, I

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Speaker 7: was leaning towards Alabama just because I think I'm higher

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Speaker 7: on them than a lot of people. Like if Simpson

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Speaker 7: is good, then they're kind of they don't have any

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Speaker 7: flaws and they're going to be really good as to

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Speaker 7: as boring as that is. But in terms of like

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Speaker 7: kind of range of outcomes, I'm almost does Tennessee count

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Speaker 7: because they could addbsolutely fall apart offensively this year and

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Speaker 7: you know they return a ton from a really good defense.

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Speaker 7: But you know one of their the nickelback is already

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Speaker 7: kind of hurd and or whatever. No he's not hurt.

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Speaker 7: That was the weird holdout, kind of odd.

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Speaker 3: Right, he wasn't at practice in the facility.

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Speaker 7: But I think they've had some injuries already. Obviously the

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Speaker 7: quarterback situation is weird, so like that could all fall apart,

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Speaker 7: I think pretty significantly. Also, they made the playoff last

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Speaker 7: year because their defense was spectacular and even though their

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Speaker 7: offense was mediocre, So the quarterback change might not matter

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Speaker 7: at all. You know, they might actually an aguilar, have

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Speaker 7: a guy who can throw a pass within three seconds,

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Speaker 7: and maybe that actually kind of opens things back up.

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Speaker 7: Maybe the defense is great again because they really do

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Speaker 7: return a lot. So I can really talk myself into

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Speaker 7: just about anything with Tennessee four and eight. Obviously, if

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Speaker 7: we're talking about that kind of range, that's probably pushing it.

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Speaker 7: But I can still see very clearly with Tennessee and

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Speaker 7: really Old miss maybe South Carolina, a lot of teams

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Speaker 7: in that kind of that we're ranking in the teams

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Speaker 7: for the most part from the SEC, any of those

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Speaker 7: teams could be top ten or six and six. So

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Speaker 7: that makes that a really really interesting thing to follow.

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Speaker 3: I think one of the things that you talked about

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Speaker 3: which makes it even harder for people like us, specifically

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Speaker 3: you to evaluate, is because you're going on returning production,

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Speaker 3: you're going on hard data, you're going on recruiting rankings

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Speaker 3: and portal rankings. Teams like Purdue in West Virginia bring

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Speaker 3: in a combined like one hundred and twenty seven new players.

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Speaker 3: When we get to those types of numbers, the conversation

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Speaker 3: then gets to who is best at evaluating Big ten

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Speaker 3: third string players, who is best at evaluating Conference USA

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Speaker 3: players with upside? And one that's a worthwhile question in

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, like who can find those guys with

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Speaker 3: the most frequency the highest frequency? And two between those

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Speaker 3: two schools, as they both have good coaches, who are

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Speaker 3: you banking on to have the more intriguing twenty twenty five, Well.

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Speaker 7: I guess produced the easy answer, just because the bar

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Speaker 7: there is a lot lower. Like they were terrible last year,

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Speaker 7: worse than a Big ten team should ever be, and

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Speaker 7: so you know they're almost guaranteed to improve. Plus they

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Speaker 7: got Barry otom who kind of did exactly this thing

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Speaker 7: two years ago and immediately created something pretty good at UNLV.

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Speaker 7: So obviously the competition levels higher here as well. So

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Speaker 7: I'm not going to pretend they're going to go nine

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Speaker 7: to three or something, But like I do think he

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Speaker 7: just kind of he seems to be a guy who well,

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Speaker 7: I was gonna say he tends to blah blah blah.

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Speaker 7: He's done it once, but he did it really well

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Speaker 7: at UNLV, and now he comes into a similar kind

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Speaker 7: of super downtrodden situation. He gets a couple of quarterbacks

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Speaker 7: and a bunch of new receivers and an absolute truckload

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Speaker 7: alignment and just the defense could start eleven new guys

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Speaker 7: for the most part, or will start eleven new guy maybe,

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Speaker 7: So like that they could be anything, a team like

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Speaker 7: pretty and Southern Miss. Actually, like they're probably they're almost

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Speaker 7: certainly projected too low because even though they're projected to

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Speaker 7: improve a lot, you're just only gonna you're only going

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Speaker 7: to be guaranteed to improve so much. And they were

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Speaker 7: horrific last year, so they're almost certainly underrated in SP plus.

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Speaker 7: West virgin is an interesting one though, because on paper,

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Speaker 7: like there's almost out their returns and you know, the

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Speaker 7: defense you know, wasn't like kind of fell apart already

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Speaker 7: last year, and it could be twenty two new starters

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Speaker 7: and all that, and I like it feels like that's

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Speaker 7: a situation where things could go very awry. But also

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Speaker 7: I love the running backs he signed, and if rich

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Speaker 7: Rodriguez has good running backs, true, like I quarterback, I

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Speaker 7: don't know, don't know what they have there or what

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Speaker 7: they'll need there. We got a bunch of new receivers too,

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Speaker 7: but he got Jalen knighton from SMU kind of a little,

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Speaker 7: I'm assuming, pretty low risk, low cost kind of deal

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Speaker 7: after he missed like most or all of last season.

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Speaker 5: And.

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Speaker 7: Then three small school thousand yard rushers, all of them

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Speaker 7: marveraged at least six and a half yards per carry.

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Speaker 7: The fair Estate kid Canon Katzer averaged eight and a half.

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Speaker 1: Yards per carry.

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Speaker 7: Like it just feels like if rich Rodriguez has seven

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Speaker 7: awesome running backs and a competent quarterback, they're gonna score points.

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Speaker 7: They're gonna beat somebody.

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Speaker 1: They shouldn't nobody super fun.

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Speaker 7: So I've they're obviously a candidate for sixteenth to the

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Speaker 7: bit twelve, But I do think they could have some

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Speaker 7: moments and if the offense clicks just right, they could

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Speaker 7: you do some pretty good things.

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Speaker 3: And by the way, to be fair to rich rod

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Speaker 3: and quarterback, he exclusively wins a ton of games with

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Speaker 3: non NFL quarterbacks.

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Speaker 2: That's what he like.

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Speaker 3: Look at his Arizona quarterbacks like Khalil Tait was very exciting.

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Speaker 3: But you're talking bj Denker, You're talking a new Solomon,

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Speaker 3: Like you're not talking about guys that are throwing the

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Speaker 3: ball for the next fifteen years. And so he's that

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Speaker 3: guy to figure out how to hit corner with these

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Speaker 3: guys yea.

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Speaker 7: And at jack Stid he proved too, like, give me

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Speaker 7: decent personnel for us, very specifically the things I need

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Speaker 7: to do, and I'm gonna win some games, like I'm

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Speaker 7: gonna still rush for four hundred yards on a team

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Speaker 7: or two and it's just gonna be a lot of fun.

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Speaker 7: So I'm yeah, I don't want to set expectation Sidees,

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Speaker 7: but I think they're very much a fun ball candidate

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Speaker 7: this year.

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Speaker 3: So the name of the game with the portal for

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Speaker 3: the most part other than teams like Purdue in West

385
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Speaker 3: Virginia and Southern miss is all right. We need to

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Speaker 3: address this situation in our back seven. We need to

387
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Speaker 3: address finding offensive skill guys, and so we are going

388
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Speaker 3: to bring in, you know, fifteen guys on offense to

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Speaker 3: help give us some pop or an opportunity to score

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Speaker 3: more points. And sometimes that works out, sometimes that doesn't.

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Speaker 3: If you're looking around the landscape at a team that

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Speaker 3: very much struggled on one side of the ball last

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Speaker 3: year that seems to be aggressive in addressing it, either

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Speaker 3: by being just healthier than where they were on that

395
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Speaker 3: side of the ball than they were last year, or

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Speaker 3: bringing in talent via the portal, or you know, particularly

397
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Speaker 3: intriguing recruiting class, whatever a new coordinator. Is there a

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Speaker 3: team that you feel like can make a particularly dramatic

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Speaker 3: leap on a single side of the ball.

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Speaker 7: This is a letdown of an answer because it's obvious,

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Speaker 7: I think, but Oklahoma is clearly probably the start of

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Speaker 7: the list. They were those worst offense they've had in

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Speaker 7: the twenty first century last year. And you know, their quarterback,

404
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Speaker 7: who I was never completely convinced on anyway, he was

405
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Speaker 7: broken from the right to the very start of the year.

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Speaker 7: The offensive line was appalling. I mean, that's the one

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Speaker 7: thing they've been able to count on for the entire

408
00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 7: extent of the two thousands is a good offensive line,

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Speaker 7: and it was worse they had since the nineties. So

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Speaker 7: you know, in theory, he actually the fact that he

411
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Speaker 7: only signed three transfers for the offensive line surprised me

412
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Speaker 7: a little bit, right, But you know, just the fact

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Speaker 7: that you know, bringing importing an offense that has been

414
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Speaker 7: imported to another school before and clicked immediately, Like it

415
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Speaker 7: seems to be portable with the ben Arbuckle system, which

416
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Speaker 7: was also from the same tree as Zach Kitley if

417
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Speaker 7: I remember right, Like that's ben Arbuckle and Jametier and

418
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Speaker 7: a whole bunch of new skill core guys who I

419
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Speaker 7: don't love, like jay Nott's hurt a lot, and the receivers.

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Speaker 7: You're really hoping you're needing a couple of like FCS

421
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Speaker 7: guys to click if you want a big boost there,

422
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Speaker 7: but just better health, like dim Burk stays healthy the

423
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Speaker 7: offensive line. Maybe the two Stanford transfers at least make

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Speaker 7: things a little better. And I think like there's massive

425
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Speaker 7: improvement potential there because they still were pretty good in

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Speaker 7: a few games. Obviously they smoked Alabama at the end

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Speaker 7: of the year. Their defense was the best they've had

428
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Speaker 7: in quite a long time, at least a decade, and

429
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,240
Speaker 7: returns a ton, So it feels like that's a top

430
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Speaker 7: fifteen defense. And if you can just get to like

431
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Speaker 7: a top forty offense, their schedule is absurd. They're not

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Speaker 7: going to go better than eight and four no matter what.

433
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Speaker 7: But they'll be a lot better, and they'll beat a

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Speaker 7: couple of really really good teams to get to eight

435
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,359
Speaker 7: and four, and they'll feel good about things.

436
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:00,040
Speaker 2: Is offensive line do you?

437
00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:02,320
Speaker 3: I mean, everybody's trying to plug and play on the

438
00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:04,919
Speaker 3: offensive line and there's only so many talented guys that

439
00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:06,840
Speaker 3: can sort of come together in a five man unit

440
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,159
Speaker 3: to go around. Is that a position group that you

441
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:14,520
Speaker 3: still feel like is difficult to replace and plug in?

442
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:18,119
Speaker 3: Did you ever feel that way? Are teams successfully doing it?

443
00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:20,199
Speaker 3: The team that I root for is trying to do

444
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:24,240
Speaker 3: that this year with new tackles and a new left guard.

445
00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:27,920
Speaker 3: I believe that's where Pregnant is playing. Is that an

446
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:32,159
Speaker 3: advisable strategy or do teams just not have a choice anymore?

447
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:34,679
Speaker 7: Well, I think at this exact moment, it is pretty

448
00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:37,240
Speaker 7: unique in that, like I think, you know, the cycling

449
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:40,080
Speaker 7: out of almost all of the COVID eligibility guys. Obviously,

450
00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:43,000
Speaker 7: if you redshirt it in, if you redshirted it in

451
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:46,040
Speaker 7: twenty one after having been in school in twenty still

452
00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:48,119
Speaker 7: are a senior now, So there are still few of

453
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 7: those guys, but a lot of the experienced ones are gone.

454
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:53,359
Speaker 7: And I think that's why when you look at you

455
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:54,959
Speaker 7: know what, I'm just looking at the top teams at

456
00:22:55,040 --> 00:23:06,840
Speaker 7: SPPLUS this year, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Oregon, Michigan, I think, yeah, LSU, Tennessee,

457
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:11,640
Speaker 7: I don't remember for sure, like in Oklahoma, brand new

458
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:15,199
Speaker 7: offensive lines, all of them, or mostly new offensive lines.

459
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 7: And so that's really interesting because, yeah, some of those

460
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 7: rebuilds are not going to go well at all, because

461
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,920
Speaker 7: it is really hard. The continuity there upfront really does

462
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:26,359
Speaker 7: tend to mean something. But you know, a couple of

463
00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:27,880
Speaker 7: them are going to go fine. It's just hard to

464
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:31,080
Speaker 7: predict which ones are are going to be a disaster.

465
00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:34,200
Speaker 7: But I do think that maybe that's a boon for Alabama,

466
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:36,399
Speaker 7: who should have a great offensive line, Texas, A and

467
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:41,359
Speaker 7: M should have a great offensive line, and.

468
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:42,159
Speaker 2: A lot of these other schools.

469
00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:45,639
Speaker 7: Clemson will be their best line in a while, but

470
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:48,080
Speaker 7: they're all offensive lines have never been kind of standout

471
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:50,840
Speaker 7: units for them, and Penn States should be pretty good

472
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 7: as well. But yeah, you've got a whole bunch of

473
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:54,600
Speaker 7: new there, and a couple of those lines are just

474
00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:58,199
Speaker 7: kind of stink. So it's definitely an opportunity for you know,

475
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 7: randomness to hit and for us to see a couple

476
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:01,800
Speaker 7: disappointing offenses.

477
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:05,360
Speaker 3: You mentioned Texas as being you know, your first instinct

478
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,480
Speaker 3: being overrated at number one until you realize that everybody

479
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,200
Speaker 3: likely would given what we think a number one team

480
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:13,800
Speaker 3: should look like in terms of what they return. On

481
00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:16,800
Speaker 3: the flip side of that, is there a team that

482
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:21,639
Speaker 3: seems too far away from top ten, top fifteen being

483
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:25,040
Speaker 3: ranked where you say to yourself, look, it's not going

484
00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 3: to take a ton for this team to be in

485
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:30,199
Speaker 3: the top fifteen. Obviously, I go to missoo in my

486
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 3: brain just because of that schedule, right, just like, what

487
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,040
Speaker 3: is the bar to go nine and three against that schedule.

488
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:37,840
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's the answer for you, or

489
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:39,920
Speaker 3: if there's another team that you're like that seems too

490
00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:42,400
Speaker 3: distant a place for them to be considered.

491
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,639
Speaker 7: I it was kind of jarring when I did my

492
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 7: IF's list a few weeks ago. You know, it's one

493
00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:50,199
Speaker 7: of my I basically have a series of things I

494
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,000
Speaker 7: write every off season, and it's really for me. Like

495
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:53,760
Speaker 7: people seem to enjoy them and that's good, but really

496
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,560
Speaker 7: it's for me to get my mind right and the

497
00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 7: IF's list is a good experiment for just like what

498
00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 7: do I think about the teams? It's basically how many ifs,

499
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,760
Speaker 7: Like how many question marks does it take for me

500
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,320
Speaker 7: to make your team a serious national title contender? So

501
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,359
Speaker 7: for Penn State, it's basically eight. Does aler have one

502
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,919
Speaker 7: more gear? And I think the only other one I

503
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 7: had was like do the new transfer as a receiver?

504
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:16,240
Speaker 1: Click?

505
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:19,439
Speaker 7: And that's pretty much it. The defense, you can you

506
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:21,679
Speaker 7: can talk yourself into the defense, maybe falling off a

507
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:25,199
Speaker 7: little bit, but I just I trust their personnel. You know,

508
00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,280
Speaker 7: they have good experience and they just hired the best

509
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:32,199
Speaker 7: defensive coordinator in the sport. Can't pretend to worry about that.

510
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 7: So they had two whiffs. I think Alabama had two wiffs,

511
00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:37,720
Speaker 7: and then all your Texas's and Georgia's and Ohio States

512
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:39,639
Speaker 7: and whatnot had three. One of the other teams that

513
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 7: had three that really surprised me that I kept thinking

514
00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:45,200
Speaker 7: and thinking about it, just didn't realize was team I

515
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:47,840
Speaker 7: just mentioned A and M. Yes, if I had a

516
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 7: poll vote, I think I would have them at like eighth.

517
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,960
Speaker 7: And so the fact that they're nineteenth definitely threw me

518
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 7: off a little bit. I mean, I kind of get

519
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:57,360
Speaker 7: it when you if you know, I know a lot

520
00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:59,879
Speaker 7: of the AP voters especially are trying to almost project

521
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,480
Speaker 7: forward and towards like what is this going to look

522
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:04,359
Speaker 7: like at the end of the year. It's kind of

523
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 7: sort of a power rating and sort of a prediction,

524
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,119
Speaker 7: and somebody in the SEC's kind of lose games. But

525
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 7: you know, I think A and M's Marcel read probably

526
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:16,080
Speaker 7: doesn't have the ceiling that Arch or some of the

527
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:19,520
Speaker 7: other young quarterbacks in the conference have, but we already

528
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:21,399
Speaker 7: know his floor is pretty high. We already could know

529
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 7: he can run a ball control offense. I have the

530
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:28,400
Speaker 7: best running backs in the conference maybe, and an enormous

531
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:31,640
Speaker 7: and experienced offensive line, so that feels like a lot

532
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:33,880
Speaker 7: of that if a couple of the defensive line transfers

533
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,080
Speaker 7: hold up like they are not really missing anything. And

534
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 7: I didn't expect to think those thoughts about Texas A

535
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:44,320
Speaker 7: and M. Also Mike Elko taking more control of the

536
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 7: defense because I was never a j Bateman higher fan.

537
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 2: I think that.

538
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 3: And he's just a good coach, right. He gets teams

539
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:56,119
Speaker 3: who aren't necessarily ready to make a leap, and all

540
00:26:56,119 --> 00:26:57,800
Speaker 3: of a sudden they end up with nine wins and

541
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,119
Speaker 3: you're just thinking yourself, what happened there, and you're like, oh,

542
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 3: you win fifty to fifty games because you coach well

543
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 3: in the fourth quarter. Things are good. And so you know,

544
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,200
Speaker 3: I'm never gonna go so far as to say Texas

545
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 3: Hayam isn't an eight and fourteen because they just are that.

546
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 7: Yeah, there's burden of proof with a program like Texas

547
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:16,919
Speaker 7: A and m like, you're gonna you can talk yourself

548
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 7: into them frequently and they're gonna let you down a lot,

549
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 7: but Mike Elco hasn't ever really let me down, and

550
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 7: the lines are good.

551
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 2: I agree.

552
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:26,919
Speaker 3: I'm gonna stay in state just because they're fascinating in

553
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:30,520
Speaker 3: Texas Tech and that's a fan base who they themselves

554
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,880
Speaker 3: will tell you, do not let yourself in August talk

555
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:39,520
Speaker 3: yourself into this being the year, because it never is.

556
00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 3: This is this is a Texas Tech team that can show,

557
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,440
Speaker 3: or a Texas Tech program that can show an incredible

558
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:51,400
Speaker 3: random October Saturday and a hugely embarrassing November Saturday, all

559
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 3: within like two or three weeks they've spent. They are

560
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,560
Speaker 3: well coached, they hired a good coach on defense, it seems,

561
00:27:58,560 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 3: and chill would.

562
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,119
Speaker 2: I love what he seems really good.

563
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 3: They seem to have addressed the very specific things that

564
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 3: need addressing, and they play in a quality conference that

565
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 3: is going to be difficult, just because the floor on

566
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:12,760
Speaker 3: a lot of these teams seems pretty high. Hunt the

567
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:16,959
Speaker 3: close games, a lot of close games. Are you willing

568
00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:22,680
Speaker 3: to seduce Texas Tech fans into believing what they want

569
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 3: to believe in this moment?

570
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 4: No?

571
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 7: But okay, so that's the So I find myself saying

572
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:31,880
Speaker 7: a lot of the same thing as about Texas Tech

573
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 7: as I said about Clemson on a different level, and

574
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 7: that they are projected to improve a lot, and I

575
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 7: agree with that, but I think they are starting from

576
00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 7: a lower point than a lot of people realize. Like

577
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 7: Clemson last like the last three years and spplus they've

578
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 7: averaged our ranking in the twenties, So they're projected to

579
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 7: improve a ton, but it only gets them too like tenth.

580
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 7: With Texas Tech, it's kind of the same deal. Like

581
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 7: last year they went eight and five, which isn't obviously terrible,

582
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:00,920
Speaker 7: but they I think they want were four and one

583
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:03,000
Speaker 7: on one score games got blown out a little bit,

584
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 7: like when they looked bad, they looked horrible, and therefore

585
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 7: they finished their fifty fourth.

586
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 1: In SP plus.

587
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 7: So yes, the transfer class, they return a good amount.

588
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 7: The transfer class is awesome. They're projected to rise a ton,

589
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 7: but they only rise to like what was the final

590
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:22,479
Speaker 7: twenty ninth And granted, twenty ninth puts you in range

591
00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 7: in the Big twelve where everybody is between like seventeenth

592
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 7: and fortieth, but it doesn't make you stand out at all.

593
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 7: You're probably gonna have to win close games again, and

594
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 7: it's really hard to do that two years in a

595
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 7: row unless you're Missouri. They they will forever win every

596
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 7: close game, just like they have.

597
00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna, you know.

598
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 1: Stats be damned, but.

599
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 7: Of course Texas I mean, but Texas Tech is going

600
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 7: to be in the mix for sure. And I do

601
00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 7: think you know, I'm so and I write plenty about this.

602
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 7: I'm so kind of just concerned about the SEC and

603
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 7: Big Ten so blatantly trying to pull themselves away from

604
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 7: the rest of the sport, and the way they strong

605
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 7: armed everybody into giving them all the new playoff money

606
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,920
Speaker 7: basically just as absolutely disgusting, could have been the healthiest

607
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,200
Speaker 7: possible thing for the sport instead of was maybe the worst,

608
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:12,400
Speaker 7: the fact that Texas Tech is actually just trying to

609
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 7: lay down pure cash to beat a lot of these

610
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 7: schools and say we're going to win this way instead,

611
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,480
Speaker 7: I feel like I want that to happen for the

612
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:25,840
Speaker 7: good of the sport, just to kind of shake things up.

613
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,200
Speaker 7: I don't know exactly that the repercussoms of that might

614
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 7: be terrible and it might make everything even worse, but

615
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 7: I'm all for a usurper in the year twenty twenty five.

616
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:37,240
Speaker 7: So I almost kind of hope that Texas Tech like

617
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 7: that in softball, we're able to just lay down cold

618
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,360
Speaker 7: hard cash and leap frog a bunch of blue bloods

619
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 7: and make things really awkward for a lot of people.

620
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 7: I'm kinda I would not mind that at all. I

621
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,760
Speaker 7: just I'm not predicting it to happen. I'm still a

622
00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 7: little skeptical.

623
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 3: So you could have named your new book this is

624
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 3: pro transition here segue as it's called for the good

625
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:02,240
Speaker 3: of the sport. No phrase you just uttered for the

626
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,400
Speaker 3: good of the sport. That could Maybe that title exists,

627
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 3: I don't know, the name of the book is forward.

628
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:10,640
Speaker 7: Proparily forward progress exists as like a football themed romance novel.

629
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,320
Speaker 7: So like, if you google like forward Progress book, you're

630
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:16,480
Speaker 7: gonna get mine, and you're gonna get like a six

631
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 7: pack rippling chest shirt. Open one and the same, well,

632
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 7: so one and the same. I'll sign if you've seen

633
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:25,560
Speaker 7: me anywhere, I'll sign either one for the record.

634
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 3: The most I think one. You should be on tour together,

635
00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:32,960
Speaker 3: some sort of book signing tour the most digitally and

636
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:38,040
Speaker 3: real life erotic football tales that can be combined. Okay,

637
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 3: so you write this book. What is the inspiration for

638
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 3: the book that just goes through why we're here, how

639
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 3: we got here, the how, the why, the when, the who,

640
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 3: and where you think this can go if certain boxes

641
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 3: are checked? So what what? What made you wake up

642
00:31:57,360 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 3: at two forty four am in the middle of one

643
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 3: night and this is what I'm doing.

644
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:04,280
Speaker 7: I think it was December twenty three is when. Okay,

645
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 7: the process for this started. Well, I think basically I

646
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 7: was talking. I said earlier that I kind of write

647
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 7: things for myself sometimes and hope that other people like them.

648
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 7: I started to realize as that really kind of gross.

649
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:22,040
Speaker 7: Last round of conference realignment was unfolding and everything was happening.

650
00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:25,560
Speaker 7: I started to realize that I don't. I was just

651
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 7: kind of reacting to stuff I didn't have a vision for.

652
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 7: I like having a vision for where things should go,

653
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 7: even though that vision is probably not going to be fulfilled.

654
00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:34,800
Speaker 7: I like being able to say, well, this is what

655
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 7: should happen. And instead, so much was changing so quickly,

656
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:42,680
Speaker 7: some good, lot bad that I just kind of started

657
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 7: to realize I needed to kind of arrange my own

658
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 7: thoughts and so, you know the fact that there seemed

659
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 7: to be a lane open for it. Basically as you

660
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 7: were suggesting how do we get here? Where are we

661
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 7: going kind of situation, I said, Okay, well let's write

662
00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:01,560
Speaker 7: that book. And the inspiration of the intro chapter kind

663
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,160
Speaker 7: of came to me immediately, where you know, I figured

664
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 7: this thing would be put out in twenty twenty five,

665
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:10,479
Speaker 7: twenty th anniversary of USC Texas. Think about how vivid

666
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 7: a lot of us remember that game, and how how

667
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 7: massive an occasion that was in college football, and then

668
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 7: think about everything that has changed since that point, whether

669
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:23,960
Speaker 7: it's the conferences, whether it's you know, Reggie Bush's situation

670
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 7: would be he wouldn't had to give it back his

671
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 7: heisman in twenty twenty five, You know, just all the

672
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 7: different things that have changed, and that became kind of

673
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 7: a focal point for the first chapter. Let's rewatch this game,

674
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:37,880
Speaker 7: talk about how amazing it was, talk about Keith Jackson

675
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:41,000
Speaker 7: and all the kind of the nostalgia things there, and

676
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:44,240
Speaker 7: then just one by one worked through as you know,

677
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 7: Texas would have won the SEC and USC would have

678
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,040
Speaker 7: won the Big Ten, and you know they would have

679
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 7: been legally millionaires. A lot of these guys and almost

680
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:55,880
Speaker 7: no transfers on either team. The only starter who was

681
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 7: a transfer was a Juco transfer for offensive lineman for

682
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:02,000
Speaker 7: the USC. Most of the USC players were from California.

683
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,600
Speaker 7: Most of the Texas players were from Texas. Like just

684
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 7: it really was. It was kind of the start of

685
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,480
Speaker 7: the modern area. It was NHD, we remember so much

686
00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:11,640
Speaker 7: of it. And also it was kind of the end

687
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:14,360
Speaker 7: of an old era where everything's changed since then. So

688
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,719
Speaker 7: that was a really nice starting point. I thought their

689
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 7: chapters about realignment, chapters about history of arguing about a

690
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:23,120
Speaker 7: playoff and why there's no commissioner and how we got

691
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 7: to the point of paying players. Although the book deadline

692
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 7: came the week before the Freaking House settlement was actually finalized,

693
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,680
Speaker 7: so I had to put I just I knew not

694
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:34,279
Speaker 7: to count on this sport to help me out at all.

695
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 2: But we kind of time of that part.

696
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 7: Yeah so, and then kind of towards the end, I

697
00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 7: spin it towards the manifesto of sorts like here's you know,

698
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:45,840
Speaker 7: the things I'm most worried about, Here's what.

699
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 1: We should or could be doing.

700
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:51,200
Speaker 7: And I thought it turned out well, like I'll, I

701
00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:53,360
Speaker 7: have control over as it made me is whether it

702
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:54,800
Speaker 7: makes me happy, and it made me happy.

703
00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 3: So so when you find yourself, I'm going to be

704
00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 3: extremely reductive here, and because this is how I find

705
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,600
Speaker 3: myself in situations. When you find yourself, you're at you know,

706
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:06,319
Speaker 3: a backyard party, you're at you go out to eat

707
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:09,839
Speaker 3: with other people, whatever social situation you find yourself in,

708
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:13,720
Speaker 3: and you know you're with dentists and accountants and horse

709
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:16,719
Speaker 3: trainers whoever. And they find out that you write about

710
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 3: college football and a little bit of German soccer for

711
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 3: a living, tennis and tennis, of course, of course tennis,

712
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:24,880
Speaker 3: which is what mostly we texted me.

713
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 7: Yeah about ninety text sorry about Geo, Vonnie and Petchy Paricard.

714
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 3: Someday, someday got to get that footwork going Okay, When

715
00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 3: you're in those social situations and people find out you

716
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:38,520
Speaker 3: write about college football for a living, they will ask

717
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:42,440
Speaker 3: you a very broad, difficult to answer question in two

718
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:46,520
Speaker 3: bullet points. What do you do when somebody says, what's

719
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 3: the deal with nil and portal? Is college football just

720
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:50,760
Speaker 3: going crazy?

721
00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:51,399
Speaker 1: Like?

722
00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:54,279
Speaker 2: How do we? How did this happen? And how are

723
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:56,240
Speaker 2: they going to fix it? What do you actually say?

724
00:35:56,640 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 7: Just why? Why West West agents in college football?

725
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:02,120
Speaker 2: Yeah?

726
00:36:02,200 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, people apparently a lot of the

727
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:06,160
Speaker 7: people I end up telling them what I do, they

728
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:08,120
Speaker 7: don't pay very close attention. They say, well, how do

729
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:09,760
Speaker 7: you think the chiefs are going to be this year? Which,

730
00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:12,799
Speaker 7: of course, you know I do have opinions on, but

731
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:16,319
Speaker 7: it's not they're not paid opinions, right, Yeah, I mean, well,

732
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,400
Speaker 7: first of all, it's easy enough to agree with whatever

733
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:20,360
Speaker 7: premise they're throwing out there because there's a grain of

734
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:22,400
Speaker 7: truth in it. So you can impediately start with kind

735
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:25,920
Speaker 7: of the compliment sandwich, yes, and kind of peel.

736
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:28,919
Speaker 2: But no, I mean I I you know.

737
00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:31,160
Speaker 7: I also try to usually spend things back to like,

738
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:32,799
Speaker 7: if you watch a college football game, you know it's

739
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 7: a college football game.

740
00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:36,120
Speaker 2: It hasn't changed in.

741
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:38,200
Speaker 7: Ways that you can actually see on the screen, just

742
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:40,799
Speaker 7: because you know, the quarterback made two million dollars last year.

743
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:42,960
Speaker 7: So I was like, as long as that's not a problem,

744
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:45,360
Speaker 7: then we could be good. And as long as Missouri's

745
00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:48,279
Speaker 7: playing who they're supposed to be playing, especially this year,

746
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:50,759
Speaker 7: but now that they're playing Kansas again, yeah, I mean,

747
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:53,160
Speaker 7: I basically it's a good yes and situation. I do

748
00:36:53,239 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 7: think there are a lot of legitimate concerns. I also

749
00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:58,799
Speaker 7: think there's a lot of us. Anything we don't like

750
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:01,200
Speaker 7: that changes or thing the changes that we don't like,

751
00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:04,439
Speaker 7: we immediately say college sports. It's it's, you know, gonna

752
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,440
Speaker 7: kill college football. We're gonna you know, blah blah blah

753
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:10,160
Speaker 7: blah blah blah. Like nothing's killing this sport. Attendance is good,

754
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,160
Speaker 7: TV ratings are good. Everything looks fine right now. But

755
00:37:13,520 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 7: there are warning signs. There's a whole chapter and there

756
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:18,680
Speaker 7: about how sports do fall off when they thought they

757
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 7: were invulnerable and impossibly successful, like NASCAR, like a little

758
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 7: bit of college baseball, a little bit of basketball, and

759
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:31,799
Speaker 7: or college basketball and baseball, I should say, but yeah,

760
00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 7: you know, it is easy enough, Like there are plenty

761
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 7: of legitimate concerns. I'm not worried about paying players at all,

762
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:41,920
Speaker 7: other than the money flow that we've set up just

763
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:44,680
Speaker 7: as we start to pay pay players. That's more of

764
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:47,640
Speaker 7: an issue to me. But I am you know, I

765
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:51,440
Speaker 7: understand concerns about the transfer portal and everything. How you

766
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:53,320
Speaker 7: have a new roster every year, and if you're winning,

767
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:55,799
Speaker 7: that doesn't matter at all. Everything's great. But if you're

768
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:58,440
Speaker 7: losing and you don't have a way to identify with

769
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:00,520
Speaker 7: anybody on the team, you don't know any of the names,

770
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 7: then you're going to probably tune out faster too. So

771
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:07,240
Speaker 7: that's it's easy enough for me to acknowledge the grousecene,

772
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:08,799
Speaker 7: even though I usually try to spin it in a

773
00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:09,839
Speaker 7: positive direction too.

774
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,399
Speaker 3: So what to you is that canary in the coal mine?

775
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:16,080
Speaker 3: You know, there are different reasons why those sports. I

776
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:18,920
Speaker 3: think one of the sports that has fallen off, you know, NASCAR,

777
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 3: right had like a hugely successful run and now it's

778
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:23,759
Speaker 3: it's sort of shrunk a little bit.

779
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:25,919
Speaker 2: I believe I'm not an expert, so maybe I'm wrong.

780
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:26,279
Speaker 2: I don't know.

781
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,479
Speaker 7: Ian McGee is an expert, and he said exactly that, Yes,

782
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:30,080
Speaker 7: you're good.

783
00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:33,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, I knew I was right somewhere in that sentence

784
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:36,759
Speaker 3: Canary in the coal mine about college football, we are like, look,

785
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 3: college football looks the same, College football is popular, People

786
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:42,360
Speaker 3: watch it, people go, People have strong opinions in the

787
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,440
Speaker 3: way that they've always had strong opinions. But if you

788
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:46,239
Speaker 3: were to point to one single thing where like this

789
00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:51,880
Speaker 3: needs to be addressed, because this is it's leaking right now,

790
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:53,880
Speaker 3: it's you know, it's there's there's a hole in the

791
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:56,920
Speaker 3: hall and we need to figure out how to patch

792
00:38:56,960 --> 00:38:58,760
Speaker 3: it before things get a lot worse.

793
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:04,160
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean the general the dramatically uneven money distribution,

794
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:08,040
Speaker 7: and not even like the fact that you know, Michigan

795
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:10,560
Speaker 7: has more money than Central Michigan, not really worried about that,

796
00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:14,080
Speaker 7: but just you know, the fact that it well, the

797
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:16,279
Speaker 7: fact that Mississippi State's going to get twenty million dollars

798
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 7: from the playoff no matter what, and Memphis is going

799
00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 7: to get like one point seven no matter what, even

800
00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:24,160
Speaker 7: though Memphis could make the playoff like that, just over time,

801
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:27,319
Speaker 7: that's twenty million dollars more or eighteen million dollars more

802
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:30,360
Speaker 7: every single year over a long period of time. And

803
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,759
Speaker 7: how does that shape things in a way like we've

804
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:36,399
Speaker 7: always had inequality in this sport, but it's inequality where

805
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:40,160
Speaker 7: every every once or twice a decade something you'd have

806
00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 7: a really stupid crazy season, Like eighty one to eighty

807
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:46,120
Speaker 7: four was all pretty wild, nineteen ninety was wild. Two

808
00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:48,480
Speaker 7: thousand and seven of course, was very wild, and the

809
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:51,399
Speaker 7: years that followed were pretty crazy too until Alabama really

810
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 7: kind of kicked in a little bit. So there were

811
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:57,760
Speaker 7: all these periods and right now, like I'm really excited

812
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:01,160
Speaker 7: about this season because we don't know who, like, among

813
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:04,319
Speaker 7: the top twelve teams, who's really legitimately the best and

814
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:05,840
Speaker 7: who could be and we could go see a lot

815
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:10,880
Speaker 7: of different chaos events in that regard. But also Boise

816
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:13,239
Speaker 7: State's gonna make it gonna be like the only top

817
00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:16,359
Speaker 7: fifty G five team in the SP plus rankings where

818
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:20,799
Speaker 7: they were sixth I think in twenty eleven. So that's

819
00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:23,040
Speaker 7: my biggest concern in general is just you know, we

820
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:26,440
Speaker 7: start to separate basically Number one, I guess in the

821
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:28,320
Speaker 7: book I started, I came back a couple times to

822
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 7: both app State, well app State in East Carolina as

823
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:34,440
Speaker 7: one example, and Iowa stated as one example for app

824
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:36,399
Speaker 7: State in East Carolina. It was just more about, like

825
00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:38,879
Speaker 7: some belts in a good place right now where they're

826
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:40,920
Speaker 7: playing the opponents they want to play, and that's good.

827
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:45,359
Speaker 7: But also when game day goes to Boon, those are

828
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:48,919
Speaker 7: like the coolest moments of a given season. Right They've

829
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:52,279
Speaker 7: they've been to Tuscaloosa thousands of times, They've been to

830
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:54,600
Speaker 7: Columbus thousands of times. They're always got to go to

831
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:57,319
Speaker 7: those places. But when they go off script is.

832
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,439
Speaker 2: When JMU when they go to North Dakota State. Yeah,

833
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 2: and if if.

834
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 7: Like we get to a point where like app States

835
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 7: not even playing Texas A and M much less beating them, right,

836
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:10,600
Speaker 7: we're eliminating that like they've gone FCS games. I understand,

837
00:41:10,719 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 7: like you can still kind of do those things, but

838
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 7: like if we're just eliminating the possibility of the NIU

839
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:20,439
Speaker 7: Notre Dame upset, the app State, Michigan upset, all these

840
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:23,200
Speaker 7: things that don't happen much but do happen, like if

841
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:25,640
Speaker 7: like that's just a huge loss for the sport because

842
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:29,560
Speaker 7: those are such energy givers. And even though those games

843
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 7: mostly go one direction most of the time, I love

844
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:33,680
Speaker 7: those games too as a fan because number one, they're

845
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:35,200
Speaker 7: a win for your team, and number two you get

846
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:37,960
Speaker 7: to watch the freshman play and all these like they're beneficial.

847
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:39,840
Speaker 7: I don't want to. I don't want Missouri playing a

848
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:42,279
Speaker 7: top twenty team every week. That's not what I come

849
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 7: here for, right, But yeah, if we start skewing things

850
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:48,480
Speaker 7: in that direction, where like the SEC is playing nine

851
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:51,239
Speaker 7: or ten game conference schedules plus a Big ten team

852
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:54,320
Speaker 7: and blah blah blah, like we're just eliminating those opportunities

853
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 7: for a specific kind of memory, Like I'd still love

854
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:00,759
Speaker 7: to be able to play the East football game and

855
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,080
Speaker 7: win a national title with Akron, Like have it be

856
00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 7: an option too? It might not even be an option,

857
00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:08,680
Speaker 7: you know, moving forward, and that stinks, But I think

858
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:11,600
Speaker 7: so that's personally probably my biggest thing, But I do,

859
00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:13,759
Speaker 7: I think the biggest the most canary in a coal

860
00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:18,760
Speaker 7: mine situation, Like we if we start telling the Iowa

861
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:21,600
Speaker 7: states of the world like they legitimately don't matter if

862
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:24,720
Speaker 7: we get to that point. Now, obviously Big twelve champion

863
00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:27,319
Speaker 7: gets into the playoff, like that's fine, you know, there's

864
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:28,120
Speaker 7: still a path there.

865
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:29,560
Speaker 1: They don't have to win the playoff.

866
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:31,719
Speaker 7: But if we do get to a point where the

867
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 7: SEC and Big ten have distanced themselves so much, or

868
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 7: just decide to align with each other and maybe grab

869
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 7: a couple of ACC teams and then leave everybody else

870
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:43,680
Speaker 7: to play at a different level of the spoil altogether,

871
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:45,360
Speaker 7: which is what a lot of people are predicting. I

872
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 7: don't think we're going to get there, but we could.

873
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:51,040
Speaker 7: And we basically tell Iowa State, who draws fifty seven

874
00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 7: thousand fans per home game, more than a lot of

875
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:56,839
Speaker 7: Big ten schools or some Big ten schools, and they

876
00:42:56,840 --> 00:43:00,560
Speaker 7: have two top fifteen finishes ever like, they're not disrupting anything.

877
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:02,280
Speaker 7: They just get to be a part of the party,

878
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:04,840
Speaker 7: and they show up on Saturdays and it's the coolest

879
00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,520
Speaker 7: it's the other coolest thing about college football. And if

880
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:09,359
Speaker 7: we basically tell them, like, don't worry about it, you're

881
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:11,120
Speaker 7: not big time football. You don't even get to pretend

882
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:13,960
Speaker 7: to be big time football anymore. And you know, some

883
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,920
Speaker 7: of those fifty seven thousand stop showing up, you know,

884
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:20,160
Speaker 7: and if they don't have any connection to Ohio State,

885
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:22,200
Speaker 7: Michigan at the end of the year either, then that's right,

886
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:24,920
Speaker 7: fewer people going to games and fewer people watching games

887
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:27,400
Speaker 7: on television, and that seems like a pretty bad thing.

888
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:33,160
Speaker 3: And fewer people watching ancillary program, fewer people that are

889
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 3: introducing college football to their children or to their classrooms,

890
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:41,239
Speaker 3: or right, the culture of college football suffers when you

891
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:45,520
Speaker 3: eliminate what I and you and I agree are crucial

892
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:50,520
Speaker 3: ties across every single area of this country. Is there

893
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:57,200
Speaker 3: anybody that feels that way, that's in power that and

894
00:43:57,560 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 3: I say that, you know, sort of tongue in cheek

895
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:03,759
Speaker 3: because there's no be in power. And also Greg sank

896
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:07,399
Speaker 3: it's not his problem, right, it kind of should be

897
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,799
Speaker 3: right that it should be his and Tony Petiti's problem. Like,

898
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:15,480
Speaker 3: as stewards of the biggest places, you should be at

899
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:19,200
Speaker 3: least partially stewards of the sports and looking out for

900
00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:22,919
Speaker 3: the capital T G G great or good.

901
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:24,800
Speaker 2: But they don't.

902
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:31,360
Speaker 3: So how does somebody emerge with the type of power

903
00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:36,920
Speaker 3: and leverage and political persuasion skills to sit down in

904
00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:39,439
Speaker 3: a room with people who are not paid to care

905
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 3: and tell them, Hey, big picture, this is what this

906
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 3: sport needs. And I am a persuasive, charming human who

907
00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:53,840
Speaker 3: can convince you, Like, how does that person emerge?

908
00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:54,239
Speaker 2: Who is that?

909
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 7: Like?

910
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:56,800
Speaker 3: Does it like does it have to be Greg Sankeie?

911
00:44:56,800 --> 00:44:59,399
Speaker 3: It's like is it his like thumbs up thumbs down

912
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:02,680
Speaker 3: from Gladiator that decides the future of this sport.

913
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:07,560
Speaker 7: Yeah, since there is nobody officially in charge of the sport,

914
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:10,400
Speaker 7: there's no commissioner or anything like that. The de facto

915
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 7: commissioner is the most powerful conference commissioner, and in this

916
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:16,840
Speaker 7: case Greg Ziki is the commissioner of college football because

917
00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 7: he's the longest tenured member of the two like the

918
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:22,640
Speaker 7: longest tenured commissioner of the two conferences that matter for

919
00:45:22,680 --> 00:45:25,680
Speaker 7: the most part. So the fact that the de facto

920
00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:30,680
Speaker 7: commissioner of the sport is working for only for the

921
00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 7: good of SEC presidents, who would fire him if he

922
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 7: doesn't do a good enough job of working for them right,

923
00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:40,360
Speaker 7: seems like a problem. And it was, you know, Jim Delaney,

924
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:42,440
Speaker 7: I do have a chapter in there about commissioners and

925
00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:44,920
Speaker 7: why we don't have one and how things work, and

926
00:45:45,040 --> 00:45:46,600
Speaker 7: there was kind of I went back to the start

927
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:49,200
Speaker 7: of the nineteen hundreds for like the de facto commissioner

928
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:51,759
Speaker 7: of the sport, from Teddy Roosevelt in nineteen oh five

929
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:55,200
Speaker 7: to you know, Grantlin Rice in the nineteen twenties and

930
00:45:55,239 --> 00:45:58,720
Speaker 7: thirties and Walter Byers, head of the incinable a for

931
00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:03,960
Speaker 7: three decades simply because it controlled the TV contract. Yeah,

932
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:07,839
Speaker 7: it was since in caa versus Board of Regents went

933
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:10,440
Speaker 7: in the way of the Board of Regents of Oklahoma

934
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:14,879
Speaker 7: and Georgia and we got ourselves a free market, which

935
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:16,760
Speaker 7: has been fantastic in a lot of ways. I always

936
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:20,560
Speaker 7: want to like it ruined college football in one way.

937
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:23,279
Speaker 7: And also I get to watch any college football game

938
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:26,120
Speaker 7: in the country on a given Saturday, like for free,

939
00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:28,120
Speaker 7: all the way down an AI. Yeah, because you know,

940
00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:30,719
Speaker 7: because of the live streams someone. Yes, but I can

941
00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:32,799
Speaker 7: watch any game I want. And that's amazing because the

942
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:36,040
Speaker 7: more college football I watched, the more I like college football.

943
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:37,720
Speaker 2: So that's great.

944
00:46:37,880 --> 00:46:39,759
Speaker 7: But it comes with this other thing that we haven't

945
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:42,439
Speaker 7: accounted for, and that is just that whoever is doing

946
00:46:42,440 --> 00:46:44,440
Speaker 7: the best of mastering the free market gets to actually

947
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:49,040
Speaker 7: run the sport, so you know, and there's no you know,

948
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:52,000
Speaker 7: I wanted to come up with some creative answer in

949
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:54,560
Speaker 7: the book, since it is the definitive guide to the

950
00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:58,040
Speaker 7: future of college football as to what could happen, how

951
00:46:58,080 --> 00:47:00,399
Speaker 7: things could look. But really, I do think there's only

952
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:04,399
Speaker 7: one real answer, barring some national emergency, that takes down

953
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:07,840
Speaker 7: the budgets of just about everybody and forces some massive

954
00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:11,120
Speaker 7: change which I'm not going to root for. We're looking

955
00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:13,279
Speaker 7: at like, the only way this could ever happen is if,

956
00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:16,239
Speaker 7: like the College Football Playoff becomes its own entity that

957
00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:18,640
Speaker 7: you have to opt into with a set of roles

958
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:23,520
Speaker 7: and a collective bargaining agreement with a unified television contract

959
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:25,759
Speaker 7: and all these things, and you have to opt into

960
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:27,320
Speaker 7: playing in this quote unquote league.

961
00:47:27,360 --> 00:47:28,759
Speaker 2: If you want to be.

962
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:32,240
Speaker 7: A part of major college football, then there's no place

963
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:35,719
Speaker 7: for someone to lead the sport. And the problem with

964
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,359
Speaker 7: that college Football Playoff example like that is the Big

965
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:41,640
Speaker 7: Ten and SEC would have to voluntarily agree to do it.

966
00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 7: And why would they do that because they already run everything.

967
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:48,200
Speaker 2: So yeah, we're.

968
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:51,880
Speaker 7: Kinda like I it's pretty clear what directions we could go.

969
00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:54,560
Speaker 7: And it should be said, even if we have our

970
00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:59,200
Speaker 7: college football commissioner, he could be Johnny Infantino, Like there's

971
00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:02,560
Speaker 7: nothing like, there's not there's no guarantee that you could

972
00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 7: trust me, right, but you know they could easily become

973
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:07,839
Speaker 7: corrupted as well, and that might not solve a damn thing.

974
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:10,000
Speaker 7: I just know what life is like without one and

975
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:11,320
Speaker 7: it's not really all that great.

976
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 2: You need college football.

977
00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:16,120
Speaker 3: The big ten in the SEC will lose their power

978
00:48:16,239 --> 00:48:22,279
Speaker 3: if college football starts to fade away. And the the

979
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:27,800
Speaker 3: money that is willing to save college football is some

980
00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:32,960
Speaker 3: sort of benevolent Saudi Kansas State fan, right, Like, that's.

981
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:36,240
Speaker 7: Let's let's get let's get the Pith, the Saudi Arabia

982
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:39,480
Speaker 7: Pith right right right to start, you know, throwing in

983
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:42,520
Speaker 7: ten billion dollars a year. So it actually makes financial

984
00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:45,880
Speaker 7: sense for the SEC to do it. There's our answer,

985
00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:47,240
Speaker 7: benevolent dictators.

986
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:49,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not. I'm not a dictator guy myself.

987
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:53,719
Speaker 3: So that's the issue, right, that's the issue that there's

988
00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:56,960
Speaker 3: no person, there's no no, there's nobody with that skill

989
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:00,160
Speaker 3: set that kind of leverage unless I mean, I guess

990
00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:03,600
Speaker 3: somebody at you know, if Jimmy Pataro or Bob Iger

991
00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:07,680
Speaker 3: wake up and they just feel like this this notion

992
00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:10,640
Speaker 3: that they themselves need to be the change that college

993
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 3: football needs, which I wouldn't bank on.

994
00:49:14,200 --> 00:49:16,160
Speaker 7: I'm thinking they're doing okay for themselves too right now.

995
00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:20,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, in your manifesto not to give away the game,

996
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:25,359
Speaker 3: what do you see as a path forward for and

997
00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:28,560
Speaker 3: by all means forward progress at Amazon or when you

998
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:32,920
Speaker 3: say bookshop bookshop dot org, bookshop dot org. The crux

999
00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 3: of your argument about the path forward that can help

1000
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:41,000
Speaker 3: this sport navigate all of the sand traps and water

1001
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:44,920
Speaker 3: azers that it's set in front of itself. What do

1002
00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:46,719
Speaker 3: you see as living in reality?

1003
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:49,520
Speaker 7: Well, I mean reality is we know how things are

1004
00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:51,080
Speaker 7: going to go for a little while here because we

1005
00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:54,719
Speaker 7: know who runs the sport, and there's no It's like,

1006
00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:58,000
Speaker 7: we need the national emergency without the national emergency, right,

1007
00:49:58,000 --> 00:50:00,279
Speaker 7: we need the effects of it without any like. So

1008
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:02,520
Speaker 7: I don't short term, I don't know. I just know

1009
00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:05,640
Speaker 7: that long term. You know, ten years ago we were

1010
00:50:05,680 --> 00:50:07,560
Speaker 7: yelling about all these things that should change, and a

1011
00:50:07,640 --> 00:50:11,080
Speaker 7: whole hell of them of a lot of them have changed,

1012
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 7: and it looked like they never would. We argued about

1013
00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:15,920
Speaker 7: a playoff for fifty years and then we suddenly got one,

1014
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:17,440
Speaker 7: and then ten years later we got a real one

1015
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:19,279
Speaker 7: that wasn't just you know, one extra game like the

1016
00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:23,360
Speaker 7: four teamer. We've been arguing about breakaway big schools, breaking

1017
00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:27,520
Speaker 7: away from the peons and whatnot since the seventies, and

1018
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 7: they kind of have now they could do it more,

1019
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:32,200
Speaker 7: but they already kind of have. So yeah, I mean

1020
00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:33,919
Speaker 7: that's the biggest thing is right now a whole bunch

1021
00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:37,680
Speaker 7: has changed. And best logic I can give is that,

1022
00:50:37,840 --> 00:50:42,160
Speaker 7: you know, something that seems impossible right now, like like

1023
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:44,760
Speaker 7: the SEC and Big Tens forfeiting some of their power

1024
00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 7: to make sure that Iowa stayed and app stayed in

1025
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:50,200
Speaker 7: East Carolina and everybody who has the money they need

1026
00:50:50,239 --> 00:50:52,600
Speaker 7: to make sure they can remain competitive, hold on to

1027
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:55,239
Speaker 7: some players, make sure they're playing the teams they want

1028
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:57,480
Speaker 7: to play, so that their fans were showing up. You

1029
00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:00,680
Speaker 7: know that those are all things that you know, it's

1030
00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:02,799
Speaker 7: it's hard to see how exactly that would happen, but

1031
00:51:03,200 --> 00:51:05,120
Speaker 7: we didn't see a lot of what was going to happen,

1032
00:51:05,239 --> 00:51:10,080
Speaker 7: So you know, just basically keep keep, you know, keep keep.

1033
00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:13,360
Speaker 7: It is what it is for right now. And again, products,

1034
00:51:13,560 --> 00:51:15,040
Speaker 7: the product could be a lot worse. It's still going

1035
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:16,320
Speaker 7: to be a lot of fun. It's always going to

1036
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:19,480
Speaker 7: be a lot of fun. Great, but yeah, just keep

1037
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 7: your eyes hoping for for opportunities for change and and

1038
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:24,720
Speaker 7: don't necessarily give up on those changes.

1039
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 2: Never happening was.

1040
00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:31,960
Speaker 3: This inevitable as you see college football paralleling, you know,

1041
00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:37,920
Speaker 3: free market opportunities, Like was the idea of realignment? Was

1042
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:43,319
Speaker 3: the idea of leaning into TV money as streaming was

1043
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:47,319
Speaker 3: sucking away commercial and ad revenue? Like, was this all

1044
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:50,719
Speaker 3: inevitable or was there a moment that you look at

1045
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,040
Speaker 3: you like, man, I think things would have been a

1046
00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:57,000
Speaker 3: lot better if the Longhorn Network never started and failed,

1047
00:51:57,040 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 3: And like, is there that moment or is it just

1048
00:51:59,120 --> 00:52:00,480
Speaker 3: you know, this is how it works.

1049
00:52:00,640 --> 00:52:02,600
Speaker 7: Well, I mean we always talk about college football being

1050
00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:05,760
Speaker 7: a reflection of America, and so therefore you've seen America

1051
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 7: drift towards consolidation and inequality and all that, and so

1052
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:13,040
Speaker 7: you can say that it was inevitable in that regard,

1053
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:16,719
Speaker 7: but there were also all along the way there this

1054
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:20,800
Speaker 7: clear bad decisions that were made that brought us closer

1055
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:23,160
Speaker 7: to whatever the breaking point is than because you think

1056
00:52:23,160 --> 00:52:25,640
Speaker 7: about well, number one, think about all those things we heard,

1057
00:52:25,719 --> 00:52:27,640
Speaker 7: the gossip, things we heard after the fact about the

1058
00:52:27,680 --> 00:52:30,160
Speaker 7: PAC twelve falling apart, Yeah, and them having like a

1059
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:32,719
Speaker 7: thirty million dollars per team deal on the table with

1060
00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:35,319
Speaker 7: it was at least part of ESPN.

1061
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:36,760
Speaker 2: I don't remember he was SPN.

1062
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:39,440
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they had that on the table. But

1063
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:42,200
Speaker 7: some of their school presidents had been convinced that they're

1064
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:44,880
Speaker 7: actually worth forty million dollars a year, and lead.

1065
00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:48,239
Speaker 3: I think they were like the Utah president, Maybeizer was wrong,

1066
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:50,920
Speaker 3: it was Utah. He was like, I have spoken to

1067
00:52:50,960 --> 00:52:53,720
Speaker 3: a consultant that has told me we should be asking

1068
00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:56,520
Speaker 3: for fifty as a starting point in the negotiation.

1069
00:52:56,760 --> 00:52:59,839
Speaker 7: And ESPN said, well, have fun, because we're not paying

1070
00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:03,560
Speaker 7: fit fifty million a team, and so like that was

1071
00:53:03,719 --> 00:53:06,120
Speaker 7: that was preventable. And if it, you know, USC and

1072
00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:08,560
Speaker 7: UCLA maybe still leave eventually, but maybe it's still an

1073
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:11,920
Speaker 7: actual conference now if they actually read the market correctly

1074
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:13,920
Speaker 7: and say we're not really better than the big twelve

1075
00:53:13,960 --> 00:53:16,279
Speaker 7: here and the big tols getting this sounds like that's

1076
00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:19,600
Speaker 7: a pretty good deal, you know. So that was preventable,

1077
00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:21,560
Speaker 7: and you go all the way back to border regions again,

1078
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:24,279
Speaker 7: Like there's obviously a lot. I wrote a lot about

1079
00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:26,839
Speaker 7: that case, and I think I assume anybody who's listening

1080
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:28,920
Speaker 7: to your show by now knows kind of the basics

1081
00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:32,680
Speaker 7: of that about how you know, Oklahoma and George especially

1082
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:36,040
Speaker 7: Oklahoma led the way suing the inc DOUBLEA for they're

1083
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:39,160
Speaker 7: basically saying they can't control the TV contract with the

1084
00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:42,480
Speaker 7: college football TV contract, they can't limit the market the

1085
00:53:42,480 --> 00:53:43,440
Speaker 7: way they were.

1086
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:46,120
Speaker 2: All along the way there.

1087
00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:48,960
Speaker 7: His name is Andy Coats, the guy who argued for

1088
00:53:49,120 --> 00:53:51,520
Speaker 7: Oklahoma in front of the Supreme Court ended up being

1089
00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:55,239
Speaker 7: Oklahoma City mayor. He said like at the time he

1090
00:53:55,400 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 7: was trying to he was begging the instituba to settle

1091
00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:00,400
Speaker 7: because he could kind of see what happened was going

1092
00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:03,959
Speaker 7: to happen if the conferences and teams had a free

1093
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:08,480
Speaker 7: market and no controls, and so they were in his mind,

1094
00:54:08,520 --> 00:54:11,560
Speaker 7: it kind of seemed like if the NCA would settle

1095
00:54:11,600 --> 00:54:14,520
Speaker 7: and they'd expand the contract pretty dramatically, and they were

1096
00:54:14,520 --> 00:54:17,480
Speaker 7: already looking and expanding it some we could have ended

1097
00:54:17,560 --> 00:54:20,160
Speaker 7: up in kind of like ninety percent the same in

1098
00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:22,600
Speaker 7: terms of how many games are on television and everything,

1099
00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:25,120
Speaker 7: but there would have still been a few more controls

1100
00:54:25,160 --> 00:54:28,239
Speaker 7: over it, and it wouldn't have been every conference for

1101
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:31,840
Speaker 7: themselves the way it ended up being. And so like

1102
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:36,279
Speaker 7: they're all along the way, things were preventable. But you know,

1103
00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:38,399
Speaker 7: it is hard to say like we could have still

1104
00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:41,280
Speaker 7: gone to ninety percince the same place, because this is America,

1105
00:54:41,320 --> 00:54:42,839
Speaker 7: and this is how America's worked too.

1106
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:48,719
Speaker 3: Fair enough, all right, Bill Connolly, ESPN, Forward Progress, Amazon

1107
00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:52,960
Speaker 3: dot com, Bookshop dot org. Thank you so much for

1108
00:54:53,040 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 3: all of your time. Check out Bill's backlog. He's got

1109
00:54:56,200 --> 00:54:59,360
Speaker 3: sp plus pieces on ESPN dot com. He's got conference

1110
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:03,280
Speaker 3: previews for each conference, not just Power conference, each conference,

1111
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:07,359
Speaker 3: and Yukon and Notre Dame up on ESPN dot com

1112
00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:10,440
Speaker 3: right now. He's thorough and interesting. Bill, Thank you so

1113
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:11,200
Speaker 3: much for your time.

1114
00:55:11,440 --> 00:55:12,919
Speaker 1: Thank you, all right, Dan.

1115
00:55:13,120 --> 00:55:17,839
Speaker 5: Bill Connolly ESPN dot com always brings his fastball when

1116
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:20,840
Speaker 5: he stops by the solid verbal again, talk through a

1117
00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:22,800
Speaker 5: bunch of topics with you. I covered a lot of

1118
00:55:22,840 --> 00:55:25,400
Speaker 5: ground when you said that you were going to have

1119
00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:27,520
Speaker 5: a chance to chat with him. Of course I said, yes,

1120
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:32,279
Speaker 5: rubber stamp that one sight unseen, but thought maybe that

1121
00:55:32,400 --> 00:55:34,560
Speaker 5: it would be very focused on the book, which it

1122
00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:37,439
Speaker 5: was to some extent. But we got into a whole

1123
00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:42,040
Speaker 5: bunch more here on this episode. And as always grateful

1124
00:55:42,080 --> 00:55:42,840
Speaker 5: for his time.

1125
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:45,440
Speaker 3: Bill's the best, and yeah, check out his book of course,

1126
00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:46,520
Speaker 3: Forward Progress.

1127
00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:49,440
Speaker 2: It's great, really if you are somebody who just likes.

1128
00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:51,440
Speaker 3: To read sitting in bed before you go to sleep,

1129
00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:53,520
Speaker 3: or you want it in the bathroom, or you want

1130
00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:55,760
Speaker 3: it in the bath or you want it on the road.

1131
00:55:56,760 --> 00:56:00,520
Speaker 3: It's a great, great, very fast, informative read. Great to

1132
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:04,920
Speaker 3: have Bill on and he's just an invaluable resource before, during,

1133
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:07,640
Speaker 3: and after the season, so nothing but great things to say.

1134
00:56:07,760 --> 00:56:10,799
Speaker 3: And he texts with me about tennis all the time,

1135
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:11,319
Speaker 3: so that's good.

1136
00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:14,080
Speaker 5: By the way, just to pick up on a loose

1137
00:56:14,160 --> 00:56:18,160
Speaker 5: thread from our intro, and this is something that I

1138
00:56:18,160 --> 00:56:23,520
Speaker 5: think we have referenced before. Aaron Sorkin reportedly takes six

1139
00:56:23,560 --> 00:56:26,640
Speaker 5: to eight showers a day when he's going through writer's block.

1140
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:32,120
Speaker 3: Yes, to just refresh and rejigger the wheels in his head.

1141
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:33,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.

1142
00:56:33,760 --> 00:56:37,279
Speaker 5: So this is what you need to do in order

1143
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:42,080
Speaker 5: to make sure that we are naming our saturdays appropriately. Now,

1144
00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:45,920
Speaker 5: the big question that I had as I'm sitting here

1145
00:56:46,719 --> 00:56:49,440
Speaker 5: listening to the interview waiting to get to our outro,

1146
00:56:50,840 --> 00:56:54,080
Speaker 5: are you going to name the week zero Saturday?

1147
00:56:54,600 --> 00:56:56,640
Speaker 3: I think week zero is a good name, right that,

1148
00:56:56,800 --> 00:57:00,160
Speaker 3: like there's never been a week zero before week zero? Oh,

1149
00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:03,280
Speaker 3: if that makes any sense, that like this actually has

1150
00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:07,480
Speaker 3: a set fun name because it's not a full Saturday.

1151
00:57:07,480 --> 00:57:09,560
Speaker 3: It's nowhere near a full Saturday. But it's like that

1152
00:57:09,640 --> 00:57:13,359
Speaker 3: amuse boosh. It's that appetizer, and I think it's great.

1153
00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:17,760
Speaker 3: I can't beat week zero, especially because the game of

1154
00:57:17,840 --> 00:57:19,600
Speaker 3: week zero also has a.

1155
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:21,080
Speaker 2: Terrific name in Pharmageddon.

1156
00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:25,040
Speaker 3: Yes, and it's just a European farm that seems closer

1157
00:57:25,440 --> 00:57:28,080
Speaker 3: than the normal farms in Iowa and Kansas.

1158
00:57:28,160 --> 00:57:31,240
Speaker 5: Too many monikers up in here. We need to keep

1159
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:33,880
Speaker 5: it simple, stupid right now. We will get to that

1160
00:57:34,680 --> 00:57:35,960
Speaker 5: when we get to week one.

1161
00:57:36,040 --> 00:57:38,040
Speaker 3: By the way, just in terms of book ending things,

1162
00:57:38,800 --> 00:57:41,600
Speaker 3: I'll start my day with a shower. But on Saturday

1163
00:57:41,680 --> 00:57:44,640
Speaker 3: nights at midnight Eastern time, which is when we are

1164
00:57:44,640 --> 00:57:48,680
Speaker 3: doing our snap judgment recap stream after each and every

1165
00:57:48,680 --> 00:57:52,400
Speaker 3: Saturday this season, set your watches, set your phones. If

1166
00:57:52,440 --> 00:57:55,200
Speaker 3: I'm feeling a little bit run down because I'm overwhelmed

1167
00:57:55,240 --> 00:57:57,520
Speaker 3: by the long day of college football and where to begin,

1168
00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:01,520
Speaker 3: I'll jump in a cold shower the show starts. Yeah,

1169
00:58:01,600 --> 00:58:04,040
Speaker 3: give myself some juice, Ty, sometimes you need it.

1170
00:58:04,880 --> 00:58:07,400
Speaker 5: I'm gonna need to talk to you about some tactics

1171
00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:11,040
Speaker 5: this year because I was definitely sucking wind down the

1172
00:58:11,080 --> 00:58:12,120
Speaker 5: stretch last season.

1173
00:58:12,160 --> 00:58:13,520
Speaker 1: It took every ounce.

1174
00:58:13,280 --> 00:58:16,480
Speaker 5: Of me to make it through doing those streams at midnight,

1175
00:58:16,560 --> 00:58:20,240
Speaker 5: especially later in the year. Progressively, your body wears down

1176
00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:23,000
Speaker 5: like you're actually playing on the football field once you

1177
00:58:23,080 --> 00:58:24,040
Speaker 5: do that every week.

1178
00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:25,560
Speaker 1: So we're gonna need.

1179
00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:29,040
Speaker 5: To talk some strategies to say the absolute, very least.

1180
00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:33,840
Speaker 3: Ty when you think about physically demanding pursuits and occupation totally,

1181
00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:38,720
Speaker 3: this a lot of people are saying podcasting. A lot

1182
00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:44,760
Speaker 3: of people just in terms of labor, physical toils totally,

1183
00:58:45,000 --> 00:58:48,440
Speaker 3: a lot of people are saying podcasts where you have

1184
00:58:48,520 --> 00:58:51,720
Speaker 3: to stay up a little bit later than usual on

1185
00:58:51,800 --> 00:58:55,080
Speaker 3: Saturday nights. They're pointing to that as like, what are

1186
00:58:55,120 --> 00:58:58,200
Speaker 3: we doing to our people keeping all of these poor

1187
00:58:58,240 --> 00:58:59,880
Speaker 3: podcasters toil?

1188
00:59:00,360 --> 00:59:04,040
Speaker 1: You don't get traps like this, Yeah.

1189
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 8: In any other profession, I think that goes with that's saying.

1190
00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:07,120
Speaker 2: It absolutely does.

1191
00:59:07,240 --> 00:59:10,400
Speaker 3: But yes, we are going to somehow dig deep to

1192
00:59:10,480 --> 00:59:14,720
Speaker 3: make it happen for this incredibly physical and demanding pursuit

1193
00:59:14,760 --> 00:59:15,360
Speaker 3: we've chosen.

1194
00:59:15,960 --> 00:59:18,680
Speaker 5: So look big. Thanks again to Bill for stopping on by.

1195
00:59:18,800 --> 00:59:21,160
Speaker 5: Thank you to you for doing that in my absence.

1196
00:59:21,200 --> 00:59:23,440
Speaker 5: I've just thrilled to have Bill on whenever we have

1197
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:27,000
Speaker 5: the opportunity. As we get now a little bit closer

1198
00:59:27,040 --> 00:59:29,120
Speaker 5: to the season, you're going to start hearing more announcements

1199
00:59:29,160 --> 00:59:33,440
Speaker 5: with respect to the Patreon, the games that we've got going.

1200
00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:35,920
Speaker 1: All sorts of stuff as we build to the season.

1201
00:59:36,040 --> 00:59:38,000
Speaker 5: I think we're at some point going to work on

1202
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:39,920
Speaker 5: some new merch that we're going to drop in the store,

1203
00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:42,160
Speaker 5: if not in time for week one, at some point

1204
00:59:42,240 --> 00:59:44,600
Speaker 5: thereabout week one we'll be getting to.

1205
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:48,080
Speaker 1: That as well. So all of that stuff is definitely forthcoming.

1206
00:59:48,240 --> 00:59:49,680
Speaker 5: One thing I did want to drop here at the

1207
00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:53,160
Speaker 5: end of this episode for anybody interested, We are revamping

1208
00:59:53,200 --> 00:59:57,520
Speaker 5: the newsletter this year. Yes, we have had several iterations

1209
00:59:57,560 --> 01:00:01,680
Speaker 5: of this over the years. This year we're sending out

1210
01:00:01,720 --> 01:00:05,440
Speaker 5: twice a week, once on Mondays. It's going to be

1211
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:09,320
Speaker 5: sort of a recap of the key narratives and questions

1212
01:00:09,440 --> 01:00:12,040
Speaker 5: and just sort of like the aftershocks from the week

1213
01:00:12,080 --> 01:00:14,640
Speaker 5: that was right, you always kind of have that period

1214
01:00:15,600 --> 01:00:18,880
Speaker 5: after the games take place where you're sitting with your thoughts,

1215
01:00:18,920 --> 01:00:20,720
Speaker 5: you're trying to figure out, trying to make sense of

1216
01:00:20,760 --> 01:00:23,360
Speaker 5: it all. That's gonna be on Monday mornings as we

1217
01:00:23,400 --> 01:00:25,560
Speaker 5: get into Thursday. We're going to look at the questions,

1218
01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:29,360
Speaker 5: the key burning questions that everybody probably cares.

1219
01:00:29,120 --> 01:00:31,680
Speaker 8: About, even if they don't know them at the start

1220
01:00:31,720 --> 01:00:32,120
Speaker 8: of the week.

1221
01:00:32,200 --> 01:00:35,200
Speaker 5: So twice a week you go to Quickslance dot Solid

1222
01:00:35,280 --> 01:00:36,440
Speaker 5: Verbal dot com.

1223
01:00:36,640 --> 01:00:38,640
Speaker 8: Quickslance is the name of the newsletter.

1224
01:00:39,080 --> 01:00:41,320
Speaker 1: It is entirely free, and.

1225
01:00:41,840 --> 01:00:43,480
Speaker 5: We are bringing on a gentleman by the name of

1226
01:00:43,520 --> 01:00:46,040
Speaker 5: Tyler who is going to help us write it this year.

1227
01:00:46,160 --> 01:00:48,120
Speaker 5: A lot of the work will be his. Yes, we

1228
01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:52,440
Speaker 5: got a double tie effect going on here. He's for

1229
01:00:53,080 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 5: four or five years written his own very successful newsletter

1230
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:58,480
Speaker 5: called the Three Point Stance. We're thrilled to bring him

1231
01:00:58,480 --> 01:01:01,440
Speaker 5: aboard our team over here as well to help us

1232
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:05,040
Speaker 5: with the newsletters. So, if again you're out there, you're

1233
01:01:05,080 --> 01:01:08,280
Speaker 5: a fan of college football, you're a fan of free stuff,

1234
01:01:08,480 --> 01:01:13,560
Speaker 5: which we offer plentifully, plentifully, plentifully plentifully here on the

1235
01:01:13,600 --> 01:01:17,360
Speaker 5: Solid Verbal go and check out the newsletter Quickslants at

1236
01:01:17,400 --> 01:01:19,520
Speaker 5: quickslants dot Solid verbal dot com.

1237
01:01:20,240 --> 01:01:23,000
Speaker 3: Yes, and we're gonna use all of our savings and

1238
01:01:23,080 --> 01:01:25,280
Speaker 3: hire Daniel day Lewis for one day to do our

1239
01:01:25,320 --> 01:01:29,800
Speaker 3: YouTube shorts. It's gonna be. It's gonna change everything, tie.

1240
01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:31,400
Speaker 1: It will it will. Well.

1241
01:01:31,400 --> 01:01:34,560
Speaker 5: Look on that note, we've got games to preview on

1242
01:01:34,600 --> 01:01:37,160
Speaker 5: the next episode. We've got week zero to talk about

1243
01:01:37,160 --> 01:01:38,120
Speaker 5: on the next episode.

1244
01:01:38,160 --> 01:01:40,400
Speaker 1: We've got quarterback battles.

1245
01:01:40,120 --> 01:01:43,920
Speaker 5: And injury news and anything else that goes down between

1246
01:01:44,000 --> 01:01:48,960
Speaker 5: now and then on the Thursday episode, the season is

1247
01:01:49,080 --> 01:01:53,360
Speaker 5: finally here for that guy Dan, for myself Tie. We'll

1248
01:01:53,360 --> 01:01:54,000
Speaker 5: talk to you all in a

1249
01:01:54,040 --> 01:01:56,160
Speaker 1: Few In the meantime, stay solid, peace,