WEBVTT - So Now What? The Fan Experience - Part 2 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.600 Last episode, we took a look back at what it 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.880 meant to be a college football fan in the weirdest 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:07.000 year on record. 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:09.240 Last year, I was in on the football and out 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:11.360 on the storylines. You know, like so many of the 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:13.600 storylines were so dour, and I just really didn't want 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:14.200 to follow along. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.119 I just sort of mailed in my fandom last year. 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.919 It was like a weird feeling to get excited but 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.040 also keep this part of your mind to that you're 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:23.639 just kind of. 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:25.239 Like, I don't know if I should be enjoying it 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:30.760 this much. Now, let's close the book on twenty twenty. 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:37.320 From the solid verbal, this is a special production, so 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:45.080 now what Welcome back. My name is Ty Hildebrandt. I 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.200 am joined as always by my co host and friend 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:53.160 Dan Rubinstein, and on today's show we close the book 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.160 on twenty twenty. We look ahead to twenty twenty one, 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.640 and we talk about what we as fans can take 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.520 from that experience, apply to this coming season and hopefully 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.200 have the best season ever. Dan, how are you? 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.000 I'm great, and I'm hoping for the best, because not 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:15.000 just is the world going through hopefully positive changes, at 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.400 least the college football world at least this country. Hopefully 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.800 everybody continues to move in a positive direction as it 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.480 relates to coronavirus pandemic and everything that has been affected 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:31.319 by it. But I'm encouraged that we will have a 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:36.560 relatively normal season, relatively normal season from the fan standpoint. 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:42.440 And I'm curious though, because that's just a short term view, 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:47.280 because as the college football world gets back to quote 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.960 unquote normal, it's also an experience that is continually getting 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:54.040 more and more different than what we're used to, right, 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:59.120 like the transferring and the NIL stuff and TV deals 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.480 and commissioner going in and out, like it's a sport 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.720 going through a lot of changes, the postseason changes, Like, 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.120 I'm curious to see if everybody's just going to be 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:09.919 so happy to be along for the ride that they 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:11.239 just roll with everything. 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.200 My assumption is they won't, because. 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:17.360 That the college football fan experience is very much aligned 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:21.600 with not rolling with everything. So I'm just I'm exceedingly 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.560 curious about how we all ride this wave. 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.520 It will be interesting to see what happens. As we 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:34.560 said in part one, we had a trusted panel overballers 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.280 with us on a Zoom call to discuss all things 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.239 related to the fan experience, and one of the topics 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:45.720 that came up was that whole situation of unrest. Again, 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.760 think back a year. We have a pandemic, we have 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.880 an election, we have social unrest in this country, a 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.480 lot of things going on, and it just sort of 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.680 all spilled out into the college football world on some 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.040 level when it came to are they going to play 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:02.760 a season or are they not going to play a season? 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.280 Who is the final voice in the room. Is it safe? 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.000 Is it not safe? I thought one of our verbawlers 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:08.840 put it best. 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:14.680 Will like the vitriol that you saw last fall like 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.360 disaster to stick around, because that, to me, that makes 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.240 the game itself like less fun. 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.720 It did make it less fun, and it was something 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.720 that we had to deal with as fans to great extent, 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.120 I know for me personally, and this is something that 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.320 came up also in our panel. I relied less on 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.800 social media to get my information on game day and 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:43.960 to build context for our podcasts. In general. I used 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.480 a lot less social because there was just so much 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.640 going on, random infighting because of an election, We've got 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.320 major cultural tensions because of the death of George Floyd, 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.840 and obviously widespread pain and suffering because of the pandemic. 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.520 I tuned out social as best I could, only to 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.520 stay seen and that extended to game days for me. 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.440 And I feel like if we're looking to maybe tune 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.200 out some of that vitriol or some of that conflict 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:11.840 that we don't need any more of. That is something 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.040 that I'm going to take with me into twenty twenty one, 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.200 maybe focus a little bit more on the game in 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.039 front of me on the big screen, and aser Verballer 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.080 said a little bit less on the small screen. 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.159 There's a lot of really positive things about following along 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.599 and the conversation online during games, and people are posting 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.320 clips of amazing catches, or people are posting like an 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.120 amazing stat that this team hasn't done this since this year, whatever. 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.680 There's really interesting context to be had. But with everything 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:42.679 sort of melding together, it's easy to get your brain 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.400 scrambled a little bit if you're paying too much attention 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:47.760 to your laptop or your phone. So now I get 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.240 where you're coming from that, like you just you have 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:56.000 to be discerning about how you consume on Saturdays or 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.400 really any other day of the week. Who you are following, 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.200 how you are following how often you are reading that 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.680 kind of thing, Like, you need to look out for 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.039 yourself as well, and if football is that escape for you, 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.720 let it be an escape. Trust the escape. 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.480 Lesson number one for me was to try and tune 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.000 out noise and enjoy the game in front of me. 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:21.039 Lesson number two perhaps goes without saying. Lesson number two 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.320 is that in a year where it was really difficult 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.280 to focus on some of these topics that would otherwise 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.760 bring us great joy, the fact that it seems like 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.240 we're going to have a level of normalcy in twenty 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.920 twenty one is incredibly exciting. It's incredibly exciting to look ahead. 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.279 We had countless comments from folks who are already starting 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.320 to get into it, maybe even earlier than before this year. 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.760 You know, going into the summer, I found myself definitely 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.560 following a little bit more closely, you know, outside of 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.720 the raw football product, like following a little bit more 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.240 on recruiting, Following what they're doing in terms of amenities 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:58.560 for the stadium, you know, seeing what's happening with the 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.960 you know, athletic department as a whole. I've definitely found 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.279 myself a little bit more back into that, Like I 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:05.240 normally would be. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.200 And this support something that I think we've been saying 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.159 on the show now for a while that even though 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:15.240 we had a really goofy twenty twenty, we anticipate that 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.040 it's going to be all gas, no breaks in twenty 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.799 twenty one. People are going to be into it earlier 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.640 than usual. They're going to be following that narrative more 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:27.000 intensely than ever before. We had a comment hear from Andrew. 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.360 I think over the past month, I've really caught the fever, 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.520 I guess, and I'm baiyah, I am ready and like 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:35.359 have caught up on all the recruiting. 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.160 We are recording this in May, Dan, and I know 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.240 from looking at our numbers typically May is not one 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:44.240 of the hot months for college football. I feel like 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.839 I'm picking up that sentiment across the board that May 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:50.400 is not too early in twenty twenty one to fully 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:52.880 re engage with college football. No. 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.040 I mean, we do this show all year every year, 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.440 so you know, it's one of those things we're engaging 0:06:57.440 --> 0:06:59.800 with the sport all year long, even if the news 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.480 that comes out isn't all that plentiful. But yeah, it's 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:07.000 hard to paint an entire group of a sports fans 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.040 with a broad brush, because I still think some people 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:11.960 are going to be I think a minority of people 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.800 are going to be hesitant about bigger gatherings, be it 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.800 watch parties or attending games or traveling to attend games. 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.080 But I think, by and large, my hunch is you 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.440 are more likely than not to be more engaged than 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.680 you were last year around this time or even June July, August, 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.080 when there's media days, when camp opens, when more and 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:35.480 more stories are coming out about things that are going 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:37.400 to happen during the season with your favorite team or 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.920 a conference or anything like that. Yeah, I think the 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:44.920 majority of people are ready to exhale and la. 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:49.040 Loose, even just from the standpoint of paying attention, even 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:53.440 if it doesn't translate to people going out to the stadium. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.640 I think there is definitely an element here of not 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.920 realizing what you had until it was gone or until 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:04.280 was not itself a slim down diet version of itself. 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:06.679 And so I would expect that we're going to see 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:11.000 just intense fervor for college football in a way that 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:14.720 we haven't seen in generations. In twenty twenty one. That's 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.760 less than two for me, We did talk specifically to 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.400 that point of are you gonna go out to the games, like, 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.280 what's what's that going to look like? I'm gonna go 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:29.880 to a big game to the first weekend and I'm 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:31.320 not looking back like. 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.520 I'm head first absolutely all on into the season. 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.080 I feel like it's one or the other. I feel 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:41.959 like you're going to have a swath of folks who 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.440 are not comfortable yet with that, and then on the 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:50.000 polar opposite side, you're going to have folks like our 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:54.760 verballer who are just intensely ready to get in there, 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.959 go to the stadium, pack it in, cheer for your team, 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:01.160 and carry on as normal. 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:06.040 Well, think about how much more information we have now, 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.559 even a few months after the season, just between vaccinations, 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:12.840 between just more and more science coming out. It's just 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.120 it's going to fill people with a confidence that they 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:18.720 just didn't have. So much was unknown, and so much changes, 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.320 and so much is added to our our knowledge base 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.280 every day, every hour, every week, whatever, and so it's 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.360 a huge, huge deal. We were trying to form opinions 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:35.280 with very little known about how to combat travel gatherings, 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:38.359 you know, masks, things of that nature, and obviously now vaccines. 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.800 So the fact that people are armed with so much 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:46.280 more knowledge, I think is just it's beyond meaningful at 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.960 this point. The question to me is, it's not like 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:52.720 and this is a broader conversation, we can touch on 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.640 it a little. It's not like college football. The sport 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:01.360 was in a great place attendance wise. So maybe this 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.320 is a shot in the arm, partial pun intended for 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.640 attending games live because we're so desperate to be in 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.239 person with people and to yell in person, and to tailgate, 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.440 and to hear a marching band in person, and to 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.440 kick the pole at USC and all the fun traditions. 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.840 But I wonder if it's short lived. I wonder if 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.720 things sort of go back to the way they were 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:29.120 twenty seventeen, eighteen nineteen in terms of the TV product 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:34.120 has gotten so good, the pain of parking and you know, 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:38.200 finding reasonably priced tickets and going to a stadium that 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.760 there aren't enough bathrooms or the catwalks are cramped and 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.000 there's no Wi Fi or phone signal or anything like that. 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.079 I wonder if we get back to that less ideal 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.200 version of normal as well, or if schools are going 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.840 to double down and really embrace the fact that we 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.040 prove being together in a stadium more than ever before. 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:58.920 That to me is interesting question wise. 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.280 I think for sure, in the short term we're going 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:05.760 to see an influx in folks who want to go out. 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.520 We're going to see higher than usual ticket prices on 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.200 game day on stub Hub. There will be demand for 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.720 these tickets. And I don't care what school you will 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:19.320 see demand. What happens though in twenty twenty two remains 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.640 to be seen. Will it go back to the place 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.640 where Dennis Dodd is writing about SEC attendance. What do 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.640 you think? I think eventually it will get back to 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.080 that place. I don't know if it's going to occur 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.120 just after one season. I could see this taking a 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.800 while to get out of everyone's system. 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.920 It's a question of the sports health in general, where 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.640 people believe playoff participants are kind of a foregone conclusion 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:49.200 right now, where you sometimes you get sort of that 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.880 wild car team that isn't used to being in that conversation, 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:54.880 like LSU was a couple of years ago that was 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.560 just lightning in a bottle. But by and large, the 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.040 postseason of the top of the sport has looked kind 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.920 of similar for a few years now, and I don't 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:08.040 know if it's a direct relationship, is a correlation causation thing, 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.480 but depending on what the postseason looks like, depending on 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:16.320 how well schools and stadiums invest in the fan experience 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.200 and making things as comfortable as possible, because for a 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.559 long time they didn't have to. People just always bought 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:26.559 tickets and showed up and tailgated and yelled at the 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.199 refs and did everything that comes with the territory of 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.800 attending a game. I sincerely wonder and there is an 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.560 opportunity to be had. There's a financial investment needed, but 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.240 there's an opportunity to be had as fans come back, 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.760 for fans to come back and see how much better 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.800 the stadium and in person experience is now. I don't 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:49.240 know if the funds are there for a lot of 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.440 these places to make those investments, but the opportunity is 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.040 there right now to double down on how excited people 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:57.800 are about attending names. 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.319 We shall see what happens, but I think that is 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.240 one of the other takeaways for me in talking with 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:10.040 folks that of course there will be some hesitancy about 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:12.400 going back to the stadium, but we are going to 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.760 see a great number of folks who are on the 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.800 complete opposite end, and they are just chomping at the bit, 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.960 champing at the bit, champing to get out there and 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.520 cheer on their favorite teams. What other takeaways do you have, Dan. 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.760 That people want to feel okay about watching football. I 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.040 think a lot of people felt fine about watching football 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.200 last year. But I think if you look at the 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.360 totality of college football fans, you know, some people felt 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:45.880 that there should have been a spring season and it 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:47.920 should have been pushed back to where we did know 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:50.480 more and that would have been the safer route to go. 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.080 And I think a lot of those people are going 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:59.120 to feel a lot better about watching, engaging with the sport, 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.880 going to game games, listening to podcasts, watching game day 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:08.040 things like that than ever before. I am looking forward 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.120 to seeing the I mean I mentioned the overall health 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.719 of the sport and just how people feel about a 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.439 sport that's still changing a lot. We're seeing nil laws 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:20.840 across different states and conversations about Congress getting involved, and 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:25.920 I'm curious to see how people once they are fully 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.600 back in with the sport and looking at message boards 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.440 and you know, making their opinions known among their friends 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.920 and online. I'm curious to see what the long term 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.720 health of the sport looks like with a lot of 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.360 the horrors of twenty twenty behind us. 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:45.440 I definitely noticed as well that just in talking with 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.560 our panel, even in talking with some of our previous 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.920 interview subjects, that source of conflict was a through line. 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.360 Everybody felt very conflicted about this season. Even the people 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:58.960 who wanted to play the season felt conflicted about some 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:01.840 element of it. So to be able to go into 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.440 twenty twenty one with hopefully most of that behind us 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.680 is definitely a wanted need from the fan base, from 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.120 the college football universe as a whole. People want to 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:13.800 be past that. They don't want to have to deal 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.840 with that baggage anymore. One of the other big takeaways 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.640 for me, Dan and this goes back to this whole 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.720 idea to do a so Now What series. Looking back 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:30.880 when we originally envisioned this subject back in late November 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:35.080 early December, the hope, the intent was that our part 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:39.400 two would always feature a great deal of lessons learned. 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.960 I don't know if we ever really got there. I 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.880 think we found it. On a personal level, people learned 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.320 things about themselves, what it meant to be cooped up, 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.680 what it meant to be watching games at home alone, 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:59.760 away from their friends. But in neither the conference show, 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.880 nor the PAC twelve show where we talked about players 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:07.280 and coaches, nor the broadcasting show, nor this one, frankly, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:09.680 did we learn a whole lot that we can take 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.320 with us into twenty twenty one and beyond. And so 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:16.840 I guess the big thing that I've learned is that, 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.640 more than anything, people just want to forget about this. 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.440 People are just done with this, for better or worse. 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.560 That is the sentiment that I think rang the most true. 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.560 Yeah, I think a lot of the lessons are probably 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:33.160 going to come out of the fact that we learned 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.480 a lot more about the inner workings of the sport 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:41.640 and how administrators and coaches and players are or are 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:47.520 not able to navigate serious challenges. And we saw discord 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.640 in the Big ten, and we saw certain conferences much 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.360 more on the same page in terms of how things 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:57.160 should operate, whether they should play, how stadiums should be. 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.560 And that's a huge lesson about who's on the same 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:02.600 page and who's not. I thought a huge lesson was 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.840 knowing that the players had the quietest voice in this all, 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.199 that they were able to make their voices heard, And 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.639 I think moving forward, that's a huge deal. 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.720 Trevor Lawrence justin fields guys with a lot to lose. 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:18.120 I think it's a huge deal. 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:20.280 I think it's a huge deal that is not going away, 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.040 no matter how badly some people want it to and 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.640 have the conversation strictly be about football. I think there's 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:31.200 an interesting lesson about players' ability to get message out 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:33.800 that I think is a huge, huge deal that I 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.240 don't think is going to go away. So that to 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:37.959 me is also fascinating. 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:42.600 And fans responding to it, frankly, because without the reception 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:47.240 from the college football world, none of it goes anywhere anyway. 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.840 The fact that it was met with the reception it 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:55.560 was was a turning point in many ways, and a 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:56.399 good one at that. 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:58.240 Yeah, I think there is going to be a certain 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:02.880 amount of accountability that didn't exist in the sport before 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:09.520 because of how transparent things can be, both with reporting, 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:14.800 with social media and with just the inspiration to make 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.639 certain truths known. So that to me is going to 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.080 be an ongoing element of all of this. But yeah, 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:22.920 I mean, there's a lot to unpack with twenty twenty. 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.480 Tie that you know is just it's going to play out, 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:27.520 not just over this offseason, but years to come. 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.400 I am ready to close the book on twenty twenty. 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:32.280 How about you as am? I? 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:35.840 Yeah, I absolutely am. It was a year i'd I'd 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:42.200 rather forget in terms of my own selfish personal fandom. 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.200 Thanks for listening to So Now What, our limited run 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.159 series taking a look back and a look ahead. A 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.880 special thank you to our eschemed panel Overballers Andrew Andrew, 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:59.639 Dan Cole, Taylor, Nathan Mark and Squishy. To close the 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.720 book on twenty and So Now What. Head on over 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.680 to verballers dot com for our live discord chat on 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.200 Friday night, June the fourth. While you're there, you can 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.560 also find audio and video versions of the interviews we 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:17.120 use to make this series. Thank you again for your support, 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.600 Stay safe, and as always, stay solid.