1
00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:06,880
Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal ull that for me. I'm

2
00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:08,079
Speaker 1: a man, I'm for it.

3
00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:10,119
Speaker 2: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to

4
00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:12,080
Speaker 2: be happy. You want to be happy for a day?

5
00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:13,560
Speaker 1: Edo State is that?

6
00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:14,360
Speaker 3: Woo whoo?

7
00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:17,080
Speaker 1: And them and tie.

8
00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:21,320
Speaker 3: Dan Rubinstein, our guest of honor today, has not been

9
00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:24,960
Speaker 3: on this show in a little over a decade, if

10
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:26,840
Speaker 3: you can believe it, that's how old we are.

11
00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:30,360
Speaker 4: I could not believe my eyes when I went to

12
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:32,760
Speaker 4: our website and saw how long it's been. Ralph Russo

13
00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:35,240
Speaker 4: from the Athletic, who is going to join us today

14
00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:36,000
Speaker 4: in too.

15
00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:37,440
Speaker 1: Long, doing a great job.

16
00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:40,320
Speaker 2: Was at the AP forever i remember correctly, and now

17
00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:42,400
Speaker 2: has been at the Athletic for a bit and does

18
00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:45,320
Speaker 2: great work. Has been reporting on all of the college

19
00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:50,040
Speaker 2: football playoff conference meetings and has done great reporting for

20
00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:54,639
Speaker 2: the Athletic. Excited to pick his brain about the whims

21
00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:59,880
Speaker 2: and concerns and slamming fists standing on the table top

22
00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:04,319
Speaker 2: at some sort of automatic qualifying something he's not great,

23
00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:05,360
Speaker 2: can't wait to pick his brain.

24
00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:08,760
Speaker 4: We've talked a little bit about this subject, and we

25
00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:11,000
Speaker 4: try not to talk too too much about it because

26
00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,080
Speaker 4: if you do that, people start to glaze over bombers, Right,

27
00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:16,880
Speaker 4: it's bummers, it's college football business. People just want to

28
00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:20,000
Speaker 4: talk about the football. We can assure you that starting

29
00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:21,720
Speaker 4: the first week of July, we actually are going to

30
00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:24,680
Speaker 4: start talking about the football. Our previews are going to

31
00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:26,520
Speaker 4: ramp up, So make sure you hit follow, make sure

32
00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:28,039
Speaker 4: you hit subscribe wherever you can.

33
00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:29,360
Speaker 3: You don't want to miss that.

34
00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:32,760
Speaker 4: We've got our standard issue What's New in twenty twenty

35
00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:35,840
Speaker 4: five episode that's going to be coming out start of July,

36
00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:38,160
Speaker 4: and then after that the following week, we'll switch it

37
00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:40,280
Speaker 4: back up to three episodes a week and start worpping

38
00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:43,800
Speaker 4: through conferences and teams and all the actual fun stuff

39
00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:46,840
Speaker 4: that people listen to us to hear and people care

40
00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:47,520
Speaker 4: the most about.

41
00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:49,760
Speaker 3: But before we do, we have not had.

42
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:52,320
Speaker 4: An opportunity to actually talk to a reporter who is

43
00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,080
Speaker 4: on the ground trying to cover this story, trying to

44
00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:58,920
Speaker 4: figure out, like us, where the playoff is headed, where

45
00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:02,040
Speaker 4: the postseason at largest headed, where college football as a

46
00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:05,640
Speaker 4: whole is headed. This is a very very charged subject.

47
00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:08,920
Speaker 4: So uh pretty excited that we get to bring Ralph

48
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:09,680
Speaker 4: back on the show.

49
00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:11,400
Speaker 1: I could have been this reporter.

50
00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:14,320
Speaker 2: I sat right behind Greg Sank at a Cubs game,

51
00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:17,520
Speaker 2: and I didn't say anything because he didn't look like

52
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:18,240
Speaker 2: he wanted.

53
00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:19,440
Speaker 1: To talk about where's the dedication?

54
00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:19,760
Speaker 5: Dan?

55
00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:21,800
Speaker 2: Well, this was two years ago, I think, and it

56
00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:24,239
Speaker 2: wasn't my ticket. We got gifted tickets, the good good

57
00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:26,720
Speaker 2: seats at Wrigley And I was like, that dude's wearing

58
00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:28,520
Speaker 2: an SEC lapelpin.

59
00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:32,720
Speaker 3: We'rein of just leaned over and said, where's it all going? Greg?

60
00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:35,440
Speaker 3: Eight or nine games? But what's your what's your vibe here?

61
00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:37,600
Speaker 3: What are we doing here? Yeah?

62
00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:39,560
Speaker 2: I saw the SEC lapelpin. I was like, oh, he

63
00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:42,320
Speaker 2: must be somebody. As I'm like looking him down to

64
00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:44,280
Speaker 2: up and then I was like, that dude that is

65
00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:47,919
Speaker 2: wearing an SEC lapelpin looks like a reasonably about He

66
00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:49,840
Speaker 2: looks like Greg Sank. And I was like, wait a minute,

67
00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:52,720
Speaker 2: we might have a situation on our hands, Detective Rubinstein

68
00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:56,000
Speaker 2: and it was Greg Zank. Yeah, but I did not

69
00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:56,640
Speaker 2: say anything.

70
00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:00,400
Speaker 4: Oh well, all right again, make sure sure you hit

71
00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:02,400
Speaker 4: follow hit subscribes that you don't miss any of our

72
00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:05,440
Speaker 4: upcoming episodes. Verbalers dot com v E R B A

73
00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:07,840
Speaker 4: L l e r s dot comments where you can go.

74
00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:11,360
Speaker 4: That is our Patreon. You can listen to this episode

75
00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,399
Speaker 4: all over episodes without the ads, get them a little

76
00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:15,720
Speaker 4: bit early, get access to the discord and the games

77
00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:17,280
Speaker 4: that we're gonna spin up as the season gets a

78
00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:21,720
Speaker 4: little bit closer, you know the drill by Now Yes,

79
00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:27,720
Speaker 4: can't wait joining us now a senior writer for The Athletic.

80
00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:31,200
Speaker 4: It has been ten whole years since we've had this

81
00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:34,200
Speaker 4: gentleman on the podcast, which I can assure everybody is

82
00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:39,320
Speaker 4: not by any devious design. Ralph Russol, Welcome back to

83
00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:40,040
Speaker 4: the show, my friend.

84
00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,160
Speaker 1: But now you're planted that you planted that in people's heads.

85
00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,040
Speaker 3: That's funny because I've actually found myself thinking, have I

86
00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,120
Speaker 3: ever been on their show? Yeah? Yeah, oh yeah, like

87
00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:52,120
Speaker 3: I thought I had been, but obviously now I had been.

88
00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:55,080
Speaker 3: I haven't been keeping track, just so you know, I

89
00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:58,920
Speaker 3: wasn't keeping track. But now that you have, now that

90
00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:01,800
Speaker 3: you are keeping track, maybe I should be pissed? Should

91
00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:03,880
Speaker 3: I be pissed? Should I be offended?

92
00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:06,520
Speaker 2: He tells me all the time about guests that we've

93
00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:09,480
Speaker 2: had on the show that I've for like completely forgotten about,

94
00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:12,880
Speaker 2: and he'll say things like, yeah, we had Desmond Tutu

95
00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,320
Speaker 2: on to talk about the old Southwest Conference and I

96
00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:17,600
Speaker 2: was like, what those are two concepts that and then

97
00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:19,400
Speaker 2: he's like, yeah, the year was two thousand and nine.

98
00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:20,159
Speaker 1: It was a different time.

99
00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:22,320
Speaker 3: The last time I've got you listed as being on

100
00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:25,760
Speaker 3: our show was with our friend Nicole Auerback and it

101
00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:28,840
Speaker 3: was when I believe we were on location covering a

102
00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:32,239
Speaker 3: national championship game in Dallas in twenty fifteen. That's all

103
00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:36,359
Speaker 3: coming back to me now now I remember that. Wow. Yeah,

104
00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:39,400
Speaker 3: that's right, because mostly I was I was, Yes, No,

105
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,080
Speaker 3: that's true, because I actually was offended because you brought

106
00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:42,919
Speaker 3: someone on with me.

107
00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:45,800
Speaker 1: Oh that's true. Right, you have to share your shine.

108
00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,800
Speaker 3: I have to share my one shot with Nicole, who

109
00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:51,400
Speaker 3: you know is a star. Yeah, you need to give

110
00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:55,040
Speaker 3: the star a little space. I was clearly like supporting

111
00:04:55,160 --> 00:05:00,000
Speaker 3: role in Wow. Okay, so now our secret guest everybody please,

112
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,760
Speaker 3: he's welcome. Now here's here's what I want to start

113
00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:07,839
Speaker 3: out with. So you've been reporting on and visiting, I believe,

114
00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:14,000
Speaker 3: in person two meetings one yes, yes, all of these

115
00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:19,719
Speaker 3: college football playoff and conference or conference adjacent type meetings.

116
00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:23,960
Speaker 1: What have you seen? What have you heard?

117
00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:26,600
Speaker 2: What is the point of all of these? And if

118
00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:29,880
Speaker 2: you had to sort of top level at all. What's

119
00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:33,280
Speaker 2: going on with these conversations that are assuming rooms that

120
00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:35,080
Speaker 2: look like Davos or whatever.

121
00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:39,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, well what I The most interesting thing thing I

122
00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:43,200
Speaker 3: saw this week in Ashville was a hawk because it's

123
00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,400
Speaker 3: a very nice resort resort, mountain town, and there was

124
00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:50,120
Speaker 3: a hawk circling the grounds of the Biltmore for a

125
00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:52,800
Speaker 3: lot of the time. So because they're in the meetings

126
00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:54,800
Speaker 3: and I'm just killing time, I spent a lot of

127
00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:56,160
Speaker 3: time just what kind of hawk?

128
00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:57,800
Speaker 1: What kind of hawk? Yeah?

129
00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:03,200
Speaker 3: Oh, you know, I'm not that person who can identify

130
00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,839
Speaker 3: that type of If my wife was here and I had, like,

131
00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:10,760
Speaker 3: she definitely can identify the type of hawk. I can

132
00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:12,560
Speaker 3: I identify the type of hawk, so.

133
00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:14,760
Speaker 1: Not to derail it immediately.

134
00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:16,560
Speaker 3: Hawk is a big hawk.

135
00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:20,520
Speaker 2: This is I think it's either hawk mating season or

136
00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,200
Speaker 2: we just got through hawk mating season because there are

137
00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:27,359
Speaker 2: signs out where I live to watch out for hawks,

138
00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:30,600
Speaker 2: and or I think the red tailed blackbirds, red wing

139
00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,200
Speaker 2: they very protective red wing blackbirds.

140
00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:36,640
Speaker 3: Excuse me, yeah, redtail hawks, red wing blackbirds.

141
00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:38,880
Speaker 2: Correct, So you just, I don't know, keep your distance,

142
00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:41,039
Speaker 2: but yeah, the hawks are definitely like you file under that,

143
00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:43,839
Speaker 2: like the nature is metal kind of offering.

144
00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:47,560
Speaker 3: Okay, so the top the top line take away though

145
00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:49,560
Speaker 3: from the meetings, as far as you know, to try

146
00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:51,719
Speaker 3: to be a little serious here though, really again, it

147
00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:54,120
Speaker 3: was yet another meeting where you sit there for thirty

148
00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:57,240
Speaker 3: six hours and you come away going like why did

149
00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,600
Speaker 3: I need to be here? Right? Like? I how did

150
00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:04,120
Speaker 3: I justify the expense report to be here? I think

151
00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:08,719
Speaker 3: I am a little cautious to use the word impass.

152
00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:11,920
Speaker 3: But we are at sort of we're in a corner

153
00:07:11,960 --> 00:07:15,880
Speaker 3: here with the discussions as it turns to the college

154
00:07:15,880 --> 00:07:18,800
Speaker 3: football playoff and what the future will be. We're a

155
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:21,800
Speaker 3: little bit of a log jam because I'll try. Let

156
00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:24,600
Speaker 3: me see if I can describe the decision tree here. Okay,

157
00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:29,360
Speaker 3: the decision tree starts in the SEC with how many

158
00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:34,200
Speaker 3: conference games it is willing to play, if the SEC

159
00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:38,120
Speaker 3: is going to stay at eight or go to nine.

160
00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:43,680
Speaker 3: That influences the Big Ten. The Big Ten very much

161
00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:47,040
Speaker 3: still wants to do the AQS. I don't they have

162
00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,280
Speaker 3: not really moved off of a desire to do the AQS.

163
00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:52,520
Speaker 1: Automatic qualifying, Yeah.

164
00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:56,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, on automatic qualifying, mostly automatic qualifying four for them,

165
00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:00,280
Speaker 3: four for the SEC, two for ACC and Big twelve. Yes, right,

166
00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:03,200
Speaker 3: and maybe we go to sixteen. So it creates a

167
00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,120
Speaker 3: little more space in terms of at larges and that's

168
00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:12,640
Speaker 3: helpful to everybody involved. I think there's still that's still

169
00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:17,680
Speaker 3: where they want to land. I think if the SEC

170
00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:22,160
Speaker 3: is willing to go to nine games, you might see

171
00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:25,239
Speaker 3: a path where the Big ten and really it comes

172
00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:28,160
Speaker 3: down to the Big Ten and the SEC. Guys, like

173
00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:32,160
Speaker 3: the other conferences are going to have input. They may

174
00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:34,839
Speaker 3: think they could have more input than they frank maybe

175
00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:39,200
Speaker 3: they do, but it seems like the way the contract

176
00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,160
Speaker 3: is written, the governance gives the SEC and the Big

177
00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:45,600
Speaker 3: ten final say so they need to come together. And

178
00:08:45,679 --> 00:08:48,800
Speaker 3: I think if the Big Ten, if the SEC went

179
00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:52,160
Speaker 3: to nine conference games and said we really want this

180
00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:58,240
Speaker 3: at large heavy format five to eleven something along that

181
00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,120
Speaker 3: like with there's a lot of at large, I think

182
00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:07,640
Speaker 3: the Big ten might be willing to relent and say, okay,

183
00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:09,280
Speaker 3: well we don't want to cut off our noses to

184
00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:13,000
Speaker 3: spite our face. We are going to get more teams

185
00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:15,040
Speaker 3: in the field here because the field will be bigger.

186
00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:19,880
Speaker 3: Maybe we should do that. But if the SEC is

187
00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:25,440
Speaker 3: sort of adamant about staying at eight or the SEC

188
00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:29,960
Speaker 3: will only go to nine if it gets to the AQS, right,

189
00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:33,000
Speaker 3: Maybe the SEC says, okay, we want to go to

190
00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:36,680
Speaker 3: nine conference games, Greg Sanke, I think really would like

191
00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:39,520
Speaker 3: them to go to nine conference games, and they say, okay,

192
00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:42,360
Speaker 3: the protection we'll get for going to nine conference games

193
00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:45,840
Speaker 3: is AQS. So I don't know. I hope I explained that,

194
00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:50,440
Speaker 3: well that's where things are hitting here, it's eight and nine,

195
00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:54,079
Speaker 3: and then decisions get made from there. But there's a

196
00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:56,520
Speaker 3: little bit of a standoff where the Big ten is like, listen,

197
00:09:56,679 --> 00:10:00,600
Speaker 3: like we'd be willing to listen to something altive to

198
00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:03,600
Speaker 3: the AQS, but you got to go to nine conference games,

199
00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:05,520
Speaker 3: and the SEC is like, we don't want to. I'm

200
00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:07,720
Speaker 3: not really sure we want to go to nine conference games.

201
00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:09,320
Speaker 3: So what's what's the breaking point.

202
00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:11,920
Speaker 4: In the event of a true impasse, Because they've got

203
00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,360
Speaker 4: this deadline now of December the first to try and

204
00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:17,320
Speaker 4: work out what is the format going to be next season.

205
00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,679
Speaker 4: If they can't come to some kind of mutual understanding,

206
00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:24,400
Speaker 4: then what happens? What does it look like in twenty

207
00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:24,960
Speaker 4: twenty six?

208
00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:29,640
Speaker 3: So I think you default back to what you have

209
00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:33,520
Speaker 3: I do, But again, like I have a hard time

210
00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:38,400
Speaker 3: accepting that, Like I've been told that, well, we'll just

211
00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,520
Speaker 3: stick with what we got. But it kind of goes

212
00:10:41,559 --> 00:10:45,679
Speaker 3: back to what I just said about, well, isn't it

213
00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:48,600
Speaker 3: better to have sixteen rather than twelve, Like you'll get

214
00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:51,120
Speaker 3: more of your teams if if the concern is we

215
00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:54,800
Speaker 3: want more teams in And it's always the bottom line

216
00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:58,240
Speaker 3: in all these conversations is every league thinks it should

217
00:10:58,280 --> 00:11:03,360
Speaker 3: get more teams, right, It's just such a fundamentally they

218
00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:05,760
Speaker 3: all think they should get more teams. They all think

219
00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:10,439
Speaker 3: the selection committee does not know, does not give their

220
00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:13,000
Speaker 3: teams enough credit. Whether it's the Big Ten, the Big twelve,

221
00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:16,760
Speaker 3: they all have the same complaint at the core. So

222
00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:19,600
Speaker 3: I think the default is, well, we'll just stay at twelve.

223
00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:22,000
Speaker 3: We'll just keep it the way it is. But tell me,

224
00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:26,559
Speaker 3: like I'll ask you, why is twelve the way it's

225
00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:30,640
Speaker 3: set up? Now? Why is that better than going to sixteen,

226
00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:33,480
Speaker 3: which is still a similar setup, you just add a

227
00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:36,440
Speaker 3: few more aques. So that's why I'm a little skeptical

228
00:11:36,600 --> 00:11:40,240
Speaker 3: about them sticking with twelve, because I do think the

229
00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:42,480
Speaker 3: one thing they tend to be able to agree upon

230
00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:43,920
Speaker 3: is we'll just make it bigger.

231
00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:46,880
Speaker 4: I mean, if the common complaint is that nobody trusts

232
00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:51,439
Speaker 4: the committee. Can they do something to put less emphasis

233
00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:53,440
Speaker 4: on the committee? We talked about it on this show,

234
00:11:53,559 --> 00:11:58,199
Speaker 4: just kind of spitballing. But can they incorporate computer formulas?

235
00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:01,280
Speaker 3: I know the pr around that last time wasn't great,

236
00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:05,240
Speaker 3: But have there been any discussions about alternative ways of

237
00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:08,560
Speaker 3: selecting these teams and not just the opinions of some

238
00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:12,640
Speaker 3: powerbrokers in a conference room? So I think that was

239
00:12:12,679 --> 00:12:15,840
Speaker 3: the crux of this past meeting in our Ashville. The

240
00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:20,840
Speaker 3: CFP staff created, you know, kind of sat down with

241
00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:26,440
Speaker 3: their sports Source Analytics, which is the data provider. They

242
00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:28,760
Speaker 3: brought a few outside sources. Did I see the Google

243
00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:31,040
Speaker 3: mathematician in your article? I wanted to ask you about

244
00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:33,520
Speaker 3: the Google mathematicians. I want to ask more about that

245
00:12:33,559 --> 00:12:36,200
Speaker 3: person later, but keep going. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot.

246
00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:38,400
Speaker 3: I didn't do a very good job as a report.

247
00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:40,880
Speaker 3: I don't know if I have more details. It's almost like, Hey,

248
00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:42,439
Speaker 3: we have some friends here and one of them is

249
00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:45,360
Speaker 3: a Google mathematician. We'll bring him in. So I think

250
00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:47,080
Speaker 3: what they were trying to do is say, Okay, well,

251
00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:50,760
Speaker 3: we're going to provide the committee with a new metric,

252
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:56,000
Speaker 3: a strength of record metric that incorporates a little more

253
00:12:56,160 --> 00:13:01,599
Speaker 3: of strength of schedule size the strength of schedule, and

254
00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:03,440
Speaker 3: we're going to give that to commit the committee and

255
00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:05,480
Speaker 3: it will allow and the committee will use that to

256
00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:08,920
Speaker 3: sort of guide their decisions. But overall, we're still in

257
00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:12,520
Speaker 3: for the committee. But I'm with you, Ty, It's like

258
00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:16,920
Speaker 3: I find myself thinking like, if the committee is the problem,

259
00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:21,400
Speaker 3: and not because they're not doing, you know, good faith work,

260
00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:24,280
Speaker 3: but if the committee is the problem, then maybe try

261
00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:27,120
Speaker 3: to deemphasize the committee. So it sounds like they talked

262
00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:30,559
Speaker 3: a little bit about a de emphasizing of the committee,

263
00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:33,720
Speaker 3: but not whole k like. It sounded like it was

264
00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,080
Speaker 3: almost like from talking to a few people after the meeting,

265
00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:40,440
Speaker 3: I came away thinking like, it's a good effort, but

266
00:13:40,559 --> 00:13:44,920
Speaker 3: if your goal is truly to de emphasize or reprioritize

267
00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,560
Speaker 3: where the committee's protocols are, it sounded like a little

268
00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:49,440
Speaker 3: bit of a half measure.

269
00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,520
Speaker 4: The other question that I had, and I know Chris

270
00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:56,280
Speaker 4: Vanini wrote something similar or something along these lines around

271
00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:58,640
Speaker 4: the time that they had the Champions League final. But

272
00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:01,320
Speaker 4: since the Big Tens seems to be dead set and

273
00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:05,679
Speaker 4: determined to go with this AQ format. Clearly the pr

274
00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:09,600
Speaker 4: around that isn't great either, but based on kind of

275
00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:12,720
Speaker 4: what the concerns are of the conferences, what the Champions

276
00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:15,440
Speaker 4: League in Europe does is they've got a coefficient that

277
00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:19,840
Speaker 4: determines previous performance in the tournament. They then use that

278
00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,240
Speaker 4: to try and figure out, all right, how many teams

279
00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:26,160
Speaker 4: from each European league should get a spot in this

280
00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:29,160
Speaker 4: broader thing. This is not to say the bigger leagues

281
00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:31,000
Speaker 4: don't have their thumb on the scale as well, but

282
00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,520
Speaker 4: at least there is something of a metric that helps

283
00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:37,160
Speaker 4: guide who gets what. Has there been any kind of

284
00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:40,920
Speaker 4: I don't know, discussion on the Big ten side about

285
00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:44,080
Speaker 4: incorporating something like that so that it's not always four

286
00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:47,840
Speaker 4: or three or two every year based on the conference.

287
00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:50,120
Speaker 4: But after we get a little bit more data, we

288
00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:52,880
Speaker 4: can rejigger this thing so that it's more more equitable.

289
00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:56,280
Speaker 3: Yet that has been talked about. I don't It has

290
00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,960
Speaker 3: not been, And frankly, I think part of this string

291
00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:06,600
Speaker 3: the record conversation in terms of a metric to the committee.

292
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:09,720
Speaker 3: It the more I hear about it, you know, you

293
00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:14,240
Speaker 3: use that term coefficient, right, I like I do wonder

294
00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:18,400
Speaker 3: if this metric is also hey, and we could if

295
00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:20,560
Speaker 3: we put a different light on it, it also could

296
00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:23,400
Speaker 3: be used for this, right, it's it's the old airplane.

297
00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:25,400
Speaker 3: It's a it's a it's a broach, it's a you know,

298
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:29,280
Speaker 3: it's a hat. Right, it's so I think it could

299
00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:33,280
Speaker 3: be repurposed for something like that. Or you're not that

300
00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:38,400
Speaker 3: far away from the idea of repurposing this to sort

301
00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:41,680
Speaker 3: of do what you said, which is and they had

302
00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:45,200
Speaker 3: talked about this previously, this idea of like, okay, so

303
00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,000
Speaker 3: we feel like we're we're rigging the system, right, that's

304
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:51,640
Speaker 3: the complaint. It's being rigged. It's pre determined. What if

305
00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:54,240
Speaker 3: we on the front end came up with a way

306
00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:58,640
Speaker 3: to justify how we get to these numbers? Now, of

307
00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:03,000
Speaker 3: course that could be that could be seen as as

308
00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:05,680
Speaker 3: you said, putting your thumb on the scale and still

309
00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:09,080
Speaker 3: being predetermined. But I do think that they are looking

310
00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:12,840
Speaker 3: into ways of like, let's here's what we want. Let's

311
00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:15,400
Speaker 3: figure out a mathematical way to justify it.

312
00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:21,040
Speaker 2: Here's okay, here's an oversimplified question. Who is holding the

313
00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:24,000
Speaker 2: marker at the whiteboard if they are in a meeting room,

314
00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:26,960
Speaker 2: is it literally, Tony Petiti and Greg Sank each have

315
00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:30,240
Speaker 2: markers next to a whiteboard. And because you need to

316
00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:36,400
Speaker 2: funnel conversation through a central party for these kinds of conversations,

317
00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:41,000
Speaker 2: it seems in big business, in politics, whatever, that somebody

318
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:44,480
Speaker 2: is running physically running the conversation in these rooms. Is

319
00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:47,680
Speaker 2: it actually you know, is it actually you know Tony

320
00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:50,000
Speaker 2: Petiti and Greg Sanky or is there like a central

321
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:53,560
Speaker 2: figure who is organizing this from a central perspective in

322
00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:54,520
Speaker 2: these conversations?

323
00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:57,560
Speaker 3: So you what you're speaking to is one of the

324
00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:00,359
Speaker 3: flaws in the system here, because when they all get together,

325
00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:04,040
Speaker 3: You're right, the person with the marker in his hand

326
00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:08,399
Speaker 3: is probably Rich Clark, the college football playoff executive director. Right.

327
00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:12,040
Speaker 3: He is trying to be traffic cop here. He is,

328
00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:15,600
Speaker 3: so he is essentially leading the meetings. But as I

329
00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:17,600
Speaker 3: wrote a couple of weeks ago, the fact of the

330
00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:22,359
Speaker 3: matter is this comes down to Patiti and Sanky, like,

331
00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:25,000
Speaker 3: you know, I think I wrote something like get those

332
00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:28,200
Speaker 3: two guys, like, eventually it comes down to those two

333
00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:32,480
Speaker 3: guys in a room together, right, figure it out, come

334
00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,320
Speaker 3: up with something, get back to the rest of us,

335
00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:39,959
Speaker 3: and they Because that again it speaks to the fracture. Right,

336
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:44,240
Speaker 3: we have a room of ten commissioners and Notre Dame's

337
00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:47,960
Speaker 3: athletic director. Right, that's the big room where everybody seems

338
00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:50,520
Speaker 3: to want to get a voice. But how relevant is

339
00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:53,120
Speaker 3: that big room? And then we have the next room

340
00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:57,640
Speaker 3: is the four the power four commissioners. But the fact

341
00:17:57,680 --> 00:17:59,480
Speaker 3: of the matter is if Brett, you or Mark and

342
00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:05,280
Speaker 3: Jim Phillups don't have the same power, like quite literal

343
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:09,359
Speaker 3: like influence on the system as the TD and Sanke,

344
00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:12,359
Speaker 3: then what's the point of that room? So what's the

345
00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:14,280
Speaker 3: point of the big room? What's the point of the

346
00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:18,639
Speaker 3: four room? If it's really comes down to the sec

347
00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:20,680
Speaker 3: in the big ten guys, just get in a room

348
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,159
Speaker 3: and figure it out. But again, like that's not a

349
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:26,280
Speaker 3: great way to make decisions. If every meeting leads to well,

350
00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:28,359
Speaker 3: then we have to have another separate meeting of four people.

351
00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:30,720
Speaker 3: And then after the four person meeting, well, now we

352
00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:32,760
Speaker 3: have to break it down to have the two person meeting.

353
00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:34,000
Speaker 3: What are we doing here?

354
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:37,199
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's offline this, let's it becomes a real office.

355
00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:39,080
Speaker 3: In my in my old job, we used to say

356
00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:41,800
Speaker 3: this meeting could have been an email. Yeah, yeah, And

357
00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:43,359
Speaker 3: you know the other thing that's sort of frustrating, And

358
00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:45,240
Speaker 3: this is a little bit of a side Like so

359
00:18:45,359 --> 00:18:48,440
Speaker 3: after the ten person meeting is done, you know, Rich

360
00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:50,199
Speaker 3: Clark comes out, and god, you know, God bless him.

361
00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:53,720
Speaker 3: He's another person who has been giving a been given

362
00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:57,640
Speaker 3: a high profile job that has very little power. Right.

363
00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,280
Speaker 3: We have a lot of those in college sports. Here's

364
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:03,000
Speaker 3: a cool title and a big paycheck. You have no

365
00:19:03,119 --> 00:19:07,280
Speaker 3: decision making power, right, Like, what again, what are we

366
00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:10,159
Speaker 3: doing guys? So, you know, he comes out and he

367
00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:11,800
Speaker 3: gives us a little bit of a little bit of

368
00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:13,560
Speaker 3: information that came up from the meeting, and I'm like,

369
00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:15,600
Speaker 3: you know what, just give us a piece of paper

370
00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:17,960
Speaker 3: about what you talked about, Like you talked about you

371
00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:20,600
Speaker 3: tried to come up with this metric. Just tell us

372
00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:23,320
Speaker 3: what's in the metric, Like what are we hiding here?

373
00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:27,399
Speaker 3: So it's a frustrating process to cover because of a

374
00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:30,840
Speaker 3: lack of transparency. It's also a frustrating process to cover

375
00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:35,919
Speaker 3: because there's a lot of people who are deemed influential

376
00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:38,760
Speaker 3: and having a voice here who really don't.

377
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,480
Speaker 2: Is is there an option on the table, because I

378
00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:46,200
Speaker 2: think this is again I don't have zero business background.

379
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:49,639
Speaker 2: Is there an option on the table that sort of

380
00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:52,119
Speaker 2: adheres to the like the best deal is one that

381
00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:56,440
Speaker 2: leaves everybody a little unhappy? Is that little bummed out?

382
00:19:56,760 --> 00:19:56,879
Speaker 3: No?

383
00:19:56,960 --> 00:19:57,359
Speaker 1: You what is?

384
00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:01,080
Speaker 3: Yeah? So that's what I keep going back to, this

385
00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:07,920
Speaker 3: idea of if the they can get to you know again,

386
00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:12,920
Speaker 3: it's it's this loggerheads of like I do think the

387
00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:17,200
Speaker 3: SEC going to nine conference games and having a five

388
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:20,360
Speaker 3: to eleven sixteen team playoff with a lot of eight

389
00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:23,760
Speaker 3: with a lot of at large bids. I kind of

390
00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:28,120
Speaker 3: can feel like the SEC would be like, well, we

391
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:30,680
Speaker 3: this is not exactly the way we wanted to get

392
00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:33,720
Speaker 3: to nine, but you know, we're gonna get a lot

393
00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:36,600
Speaker 3: of teams in this field, so let's just do that, right,

394
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:38,720
Speaker 3: And the and the Big ten would be like, well,

395
00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:41,680
Speaker 3: we didn't get our aqs, but at least they're playing

396
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:43,639
Speaker 3: the same amount of conference games. And guys, like the

397
00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:46,639
Speaker 3: thing with the conference games is I understand, like you know,

398
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:49,440
Speaker 3: Bill Bill c would come on here, Bill Connley would

399
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:51,280
Speaker 3: come on here and tell you, like, listen, the SEC

400
00:20:51,359 --> 00:20:53,640
Speaker 3: does play the strongest schedules even though they're only playing

401
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:55,720
Speaker 3: eight games. But I don't know if I have to

402
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,200
Speaker 3: even tell you guys, it's a simple math problem. If

403
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:02,280
Speaker 3: you just sprinkle nine more losses in your conference in

404
00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:06,719
Speaker 3: a system where the lost column is very important, you're

405
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:09,440
Speaker 3: being you're at a disadvantage if you're the Big ten.

406
00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 3: So I totally understand and get the Big ten's apprehension

407
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:18,119
Speaker 3: about the nine to eight different differential difference. So I

408
00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:22,600
Speaker 3: kind of do wonder if that's the place where the

409
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 3: two main parties are unhappy. And I think for the

410
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:30,920
Speaker 3: Big twelve and the ACC you know, at this point,

411
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:34,040
Speaker 3: the reason why they're so against the aqs is they

412
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:39,800
Speaker 3: just can't codify their own inferiority, right right, But they

413
00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:43,120
Speaker 3: may be better off in a system that guarantees them

414
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,200
Speaker 3: too in the long run, frankly, like they may be,

415
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:49,359
Speaker 3: like the Big twelve especially, might be better off in

416
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:51,840
Speaker 3: that system in terms of how many bids they get.

417
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:57,200
Speaker 3: So but I think that they're just so so apprehensive

418
00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:00,719
Speaker 3: to sign up for the brand degradation.

419
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:04,160
Speaker 4: The other thing that I know we talked about here

420
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:07,040
Speaker 4: when we tried to cover this, just following your reporting

421
00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:11,680
Speaker 4: and that of others, this whole idea of transform. I'm

422
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:15,200
Speaker 4: trying to use the terminology they used transforming. They used

423
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:20,720
Speaker 4: a very fancy uh, marketing term for this Conference championship week. Right,

424
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 4: it's not just going to be Conference championship week. We imagine, reimagine,

425
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 4: thank you, thank you.

426
00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:28,800
Speaker 3: We're going to have like these play in games now

427
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,119
Speaker 3: where the three plays the six and the four plays

428
00:22:31,119 --> 00:22:32,719
Speaker 3: of five, and we're going to make a whole like

429
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:36,440
Speaker 3: play in tournament weekend out of this championship week. Yeah,

430
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:38,439
Speaker 3: like we weren't really asking for that.

431
00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:42,359
Speaker 4: I don't know if you were, obviously, Ralph, Like, where

432
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:45,600
Speaker 4: is that at right now relative to all these other

433
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:46,879
Speaker 4: conversations that are going on.

434
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:51,199
Speaker 3: Well, so that's pivotal to the AQ conversation because that

435
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:55,040
Speaker 3: because one would trigger the other. Okay, the Big Ten

436
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:59,160
Speaker 3: very much wants that what you're talking about, and which

437
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:03,000
Speaker 3: is also goes back to the problem with the AQ model.

438
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:08,320
Speaker 3: I think the SEC and SEC country that wasn't their idea.

439
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,080
Speaker 3: That was the Big Tens idea, the reimagining of the

440
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 3: week of the weekend and three six all these play

441
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:20,000
Speaker 3: in games now. I remind you here, Tony Battiti came

442
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,679
Speaker 3: from Major League Baseball. And if you think, if you're

443
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,159
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball fans at all, and I am, if

444
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:29,200
Speaker 3: you think that there was a point where baseball sort

445
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:31,840
Speaker 3: of like a light bulb went on and they were like, boy,

446
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:35,399
Speaker 3: our final weekend of the season, if we have play

447
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:39,639
Speaker 3: in games and they're tiebreakers, like we can create high

448
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:44,600
Speaker 3: stakes small series or play in games that do great

449
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,360
Speaker 3: like that. People really love them, right, So that's what

450
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,160
Speaker 3: the Big Ten is trying to recreate, like these high

451
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,199
Speaker 3: stakes playing games on the final weekend of the season,

452
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:56,679
Speaker 3: and if you have aqs you can do them. And

453
00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:58,760
Speaker 3: I think the SEC was like, huh, that kind of

454
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,359
Speaker 3: sounds like a pretty interesting idea, but it's not their idea.

455
00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:05,280
Speaker 3: They're not married to it. And the problem is with

456
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 3: the other conferences. They're like, well, we can't do that

457
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:11,240
Speaker 3: because we don't have as many bids, like we can

458
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:14,080
Speaker 3: play one play in game. So you're creating all this

459
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 3: new like interesting inventory for yourself, Big ten, but we

460
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:20,119
Speaker 3: can't do that, So why should we sign up that

461
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:23,200
Speaker 3: allow you to do that. I don't really mind those

462
00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:27,159
Speaker 3: I actually think it's kind of an interesting idea, and

463
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,120
Speaker 3: I think it might be fun to have a weekend

464
00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:33,560
Speaker 3: where there's like three or four very high stakes games,

465
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:36,879
Speaker 3: Like I think, I don't know if I'm down with

466
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:41,320
Speaker 3: the AQ model, but I find myself being interested in

467
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:44,520
Speaker 3: these play in games, and again, they are tied together.

468
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:47,239
Speaker 3: You can't have them without the other. If you have

469
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 3: an at large bid situation, I think you're probably eliminating

470
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,440
Speaker 3: the AQS, though I wouldn't be shocked if the Big

471
00:24:56,480 --> 00:25:00,040
Speaker 3: Ten tried to come up with a way to in

472
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:01,880
Speaker 3: corporate them in some way, shape or form.

473
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:04,000
Speaker 2: Do you get the sense that there's anybody in the

474
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:07,879
Speaker 2: room that listens to all of this and says, guys,

475
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 2: we're making this sport so difficult, we are making this

476
00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:15,639
Speaker 2: so much it's already an impossible sport to sort of

477
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:19,119
Speaker 2: leap into as an outsider, between recruiting and NIL and

478
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:23,040
Speaker 2: the portal and coaching movement and a postseason that changes

479
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:25,439
Speaker 2: every two or three years. At this point, is there

480
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 2: anybody that's like, guys, what are we doing?

481
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:34,480
Speaker 3: So? I don't. I think it might be And I

482
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 3: hate to sort of paint Greg Sanke as the Knight

483
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 3: in shining Armor coming in to save the day, because

484
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,159
Speaker 3: I don't think that's the case. But I do think

485
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:50,040
Speaker 3: he has been through this more than any of the

486
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:53,960
Speaker 3: other people in that room. Well, I would say this again,

487
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,720
Speaker 3: not a lot of influence, but good perspective. John Steinbrecker

488
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:01,880
Speaker 3: is I think the longest serving FB commissioner. He has

489
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 3: been through a lot of these conversations, and I think

490
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:08,879
Speaker 3: he is a person who will say, you know, when

491
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 3: you have conversations with I think understands the idea that, like,

492
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:19,000
Speaker 3: you know, making this really complicated is a problem. But

493
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 3: I don't know how much influence he has, but I do.

494
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 3: But but but what you're saying, Dan is so true,

495
00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 3: and I don't know if that message is really getting through.

496
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 3: And I do wonder if anybody within the group is

497
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 3: really like sort of grabbing them by the lapels.

498
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 5: You know.

499
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:40,119
Speaker 3: Bill Hancock understands this too, But again he's gone, and

500
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 3: I don't know if anybody was listening to him anyway,

501
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 3: because again, these it's it goes back to you have him,

502
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 3: you have, you have a title, but you have no power.

503
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:50,560
Speaker 3: So I hear you. I don't know if that that

504
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:55,200
Speaker 3: voice is really rigging through. I do think Sankee understands

505
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:57,840
Speaker 3: a couple of things because he's been through the wars

506
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:04,560
Speaker 3: here the complication pece. But also if it's unpopular, that's

507
00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:10,440
Speaker 3: a bad idea, Like don't jam through something that's unpopular

508
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 3: with your fans. I do think that there is an

509
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 3: somewhere in his in his attache of you know, accumulated knowledge,

510
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 3: he understands that, like, we can't make this hard to

511
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 3: understand and unpopular.

512
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:29,439
Speaker 2: Well, what seems I appreciate that word unpopular is what

513
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:33,000
Speaker 2: it seems is from our perspective, and we have, you know,

514
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:35,280
Speaker 2: a couple dozen listeners that we've built up through the

515
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:39,720
Speaker 2: years that one of the most unpopular ideas of this

516
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:44,280
Speaker 2: sport and how it's evolved is the power that the

517
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:48,120
Speaker 2: big ten in the SEC wield in the national landscape.

518
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,719
Speaker 2: That they have the power because they are swallowing up

519
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 2: these teams from smaller conferences to add cachet and brand

520
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:59,639
Speaker 2: power and value to these conferences, and that this direction

521
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 2: where the PAC twelve is gone, the Big twelve was

522
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 2: on the brink, that the ACC has recently been on

523
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,920
Speaker 2: the brink. It's not fun for a lot of fans,

524
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 2: including fans that have long rooted for Big ten teams

525
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 2: and SEC teams. Is there self awareness in this room

526
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 2: that thumbs on scales is not something that is going

527
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 2: to drive increased passion about this sport among at least

528
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 2: a good percentage of fans in our experience, but who knows.

529
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 3: So I don't think so. I don't think that self

530
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:33,080
Speaker 3: awareness comes until you're on the wrong side of the scale, right,

531
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 3: So I think the Big twelve and acc are now

532
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 3: having that moment of self awareness. Oh now we're the

533
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 3: ones being marginalized. You're right, Dan. It speaks to such

534
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 3: a much broader issue here, And I mean we could

535
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:47,760
Speaker 3: go down a rabbit hole of the future of the

536
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,200
Speaker 3: sport and super leagues and where this all might be

537
00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 3: heading in twenty thirty two. But my biggest concern can

538
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:57,560
Speaker 3: be summed up this way. At what point are you

539
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 3: going to marginalize the large fan bases to the extent

540
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 3: where you you you undercut your system, you undercut the sport.

541
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:12,680
Speaker 3: Because it's one thing to say, hey, Bowling Green, Yeah,

542
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 3: this isn't really for you. Well you know what, a

543
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,720
Speaker 3: lot of MAC fans also root for Big ten teams,

544
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,880
Speaker 3: and I think those fans kind of understand that, like, hey,

545
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 3: we're tangentially part of this thing, right, But as you

546
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 3: keep going up the ladder here and say no, no,

547
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:30,040
Speaker 3: you guys don't count, No, no, you you guys don't

548
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:33,440
Speaker 3: And now we're at the point of like, hey, Oklahoma State,

549
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 3: you might be marginalized too. Well, that's a big fan, Like, hey, Syracuse,

550
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 3: you're sort of second class citizen here. I worry that

551
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 3: as we not just for the playoff immediate discussion, but

552
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:50,200
Speaker 3: the trend line here if we are heading in that

553
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 3: trajectory like that's that seems to be very bad for

554
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 3: the sport. Like I don't like, this is a big

555
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 3: tent sport. And if we're witt this down and marginalizing

556
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,720
Speaker 3: Big twelve and ACC programs to try to like focus

557
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 3: on thirty five or forty sec Big ten and you

558
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:13,440
Speaker 3: know what, then what happens then to the you know,

559
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:16,320
Speaker 3: the next level of that. So I think that is

560
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 3: a bad trend line for the sport as well. And

561
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 3: I'm hoping that these discussions maybe a light bulb goes on,

562
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 3: but I'm not necessarily scheeing that.

563
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,560
Speaker 2: Who is among these conference commissioners Actually, let's limit it

564
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 2: to brett or Mark and Jim Phillips from the Big

565
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 2: twelve in the ACC. How have they been in these conversations?

566
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 2: How savvy a negotiator with limited leverage? Are these guys?

567
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:45,120
Speaker 2: Is there anything creative that they're doing to try and

568
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 2: get their own priorities in play more than obviously they've

569
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,280
Speaker 2: been recently, how have they been at the table?

570
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:55,120
Speaker 3: So I would I would say this. I always awn

571
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 3: little apprehensive to give credit when.

572
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 5: Nothing has been accomplished, well, when nothing's been accomplished, no,

573
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 5: because like you never know like what like who is

574
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 5: positioning to themselves to take credit and who is actively

575
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 5: behind the scenes doing things.

576
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 3: So that's a caveat to this answer. I think I'll

577
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:24,440
Speaker 3: give Brett Yormark credit for this, and not that I

578
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:26,560
Speaker 3: don't want to, not that I want to throw Jim

579
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:29,040
Speaker 3: Phillips aside, but I feel like the Big Twelve was

580
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:34,320
Speaker 3: a little more proactive on this front when we pivoted

581
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 3: away from the AQ model. Part of that was I

582
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,480
Speaker 3: think the Big Twelve in the ACC and I think

583
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:46,480
Speaker 3: the Big Twelve understood this a little more aggressively. We

584
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 3: need to convince the SEC, like what can we do

585
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 3: right to put forth an alternative that gets the SEC

586
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:57,360
Speaker 3: to go, hey, you know what the Big ten was doing.

587
00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 3: We don't really love that. So they were more agreat

588
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 3: and I think I think your mark in the Big Twelve,

589
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 3: I believe I think it's fair to say we're a

590
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 3: little more aggressive about Hey, how about five to eleven SEC.

591
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 3: You guys would like that, right, boy? You could get

592
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:14,360
Speaker 3: like eight or nine teams in How cool would that

593
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:20,440
Speaker 3: be for you? I think the Big twelve recognize that

594
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 3: that was a good strategy, and I think your Mark

595
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 3: recognized that it was a good strategy at that point

596
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:31,880
Speaker 3: to appeal to the SEC if it was also in

597
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:34,720
Speaker 3: your best interest and it's in the ACC's best interest too.

598
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,240
Speaker 3: I'll give your Mark in the Big twelve a little

599
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:41,440
Speaker 3: more credit for being proactive going down that road. I'm

600
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:44,600
Speaker 3: not sure the ACC doesn't deserve any credit. Like I'm

601
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 3: sure that they weren't just sitting on their hands there,

602
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:49,200
Speaker 3: But it did seem like the light bulb one on

603
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:52,160
Speaker 3: in the Big twelve office that like, oh, I know

604
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 3: the way to do this. Appeal to the SEC and

605
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 3: break those and become and create a format that might

606
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,440
Speaker 3: create a wedge between the SEC. See in the Big ten. Gosh,

607
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 3: you've just described the plot of Inception two, but the

608
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:07,360
Speaker 3: college football bent to it.

609
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 1: Yep.

610
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 4: There wouldn't be a whole lot of people watching that

611
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:12,960
Speaker 4: other than us. But yeah, they got to try and

612
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:14,640
Speaker 4: do whatever they can, I guess to make it work.

613
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 4: How much talk has there been about breaking away entirely,

614
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 4: either in the short term or longer term. I know

615
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:21,640
Speaker 4: that was also a headline in the like.

616
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 3: Really, we're gonna thirty minutes in, We're gonna we're gonna

617
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:33,120
Speaker 3: open that portal. Okay, I think more than ever before

618
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:38,360
Speaker 3: that is a possibility. Now I still think it is

619
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 3: a remote possibility. But I think if the power for

620
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 3: literally just created another body, right, this this new enforcement body,

621
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:55,800
Speaker 3: this College Sports Commission, it's its oversight is only gonna

622
00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 3: be over the money rules, right, the stuff that came

623
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:03,960
Speaker 3: out of the settlement, and I l roster caps and

624
00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 3: nil cap and the and the revenue sharing cap. But

625
00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:11,719
Speaker 3: once you create a new body, because the other thing

626
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 3: I would always say is why would why would you leave?

627
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 3: You just have to create another NC double A. Right, Well,

628
00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:21,759
Speaker 3: they just created something that took away some of the

629
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 3: power from the NC double A. So that seems to

630
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:30,960
Speaker 3: be they just I think they just built an off ramp. Again.

631
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,960
Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of complicated legal questions as

632
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:36,920
Speaker 3: to why they might not want to take that off ramp.

633
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:40,920
Speaker 3: But I do find the creation of the off ramp

634
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 3: there's also another thing going on, and I think it's

635
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 3: within the non FBS and non power conferences, especially the

636
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:51,879
Speaker 3: non FBS conferences. I think there is a little bit

637
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 3: of sentiment, maybe not overwhelming, of you know what, just

638
00:34:56,280 --> 00:35:00,920
Speaker 3: go right, like at this point, maybe you should just

639
00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 3: go now Again, I think if I think that, that's

640
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,799
Speaker 3: a frustration thing, and I think if you pulled them

641
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:09,359
Speaker 3: away and gave them, gave them a scotch and told

642
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:12,120
Speaker 3: them to calm down, they would go, yeah, you're right,

643
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 3: Like that's not a good idea. They shouldn't just leave.

644
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:18,080
Speaker 3: But I do think we are hitting a point where

645
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:21,440
Speaker 3: there's enough frustration on each side where they have to

646
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:23,520
Speaker 3: take it seriously. But I would also say this that's

647
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:26,600
Speaker 3: not imminent. Twenty thirty two is going to be when

648
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 3: I think we have like a new landscape. And the

649
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:31,840
Speaker 3: one thing I would say to both of you guys

650
00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:34,360
Speaker 3: is because people ask me all the time, where is

651
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:37,560
Speaker 3: this heading? And I say, I don't know. My imagination

652
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:40,720
Speaker 3: is not that good, Like I don't have a strong

653
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:45,080
Speaker 3: enough like what is what is the state of higher education?

654
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:49,040
Speaker 3: What is the state of the media, Like there are

655
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:50,640
Speaker 3: too many outside in.

656
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:52,279
Speaker 1: The cable industry, Yeah, the.

657
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:56,439
Speaker 3: Cable there's too many things outside of college sports, influencing

658
00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:59,719
Speaker 3: the direction of college sports. What is the state of

659
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 3: the government that could be running parts of this at

660
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:08,439
Speaker 3: some point. So it's hard for me to determine, because

661
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 3: I don't think we're on a linear trajectory.

662
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:12,520
Speaker 1: We might be.

663
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:15,440
Speaker 3: We might be on a linear trajectory where it's just, oh,

664
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 3: the SEC grabs a whole bunch more and the Big

665
00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 3: ten grabs a whole bunch more, and now they're the

666
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 3: AFC and NFC. That's the that's the that's the linear path.

667
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,799
Speaker 3: But I think it's I think it would be foolish

668
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:28,799
Speaker 3: for us to think that there's some kind of other

669
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:33,520
Speaker 3: disruption that's possible that creates a bend in this path,

670
00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:38,360
Speaker 3: A new timeline might one might say, yeah, might create

671
00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 3: a new time, reimagined timeline.

672
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 4: Reason how we can we can classify it on a

673
00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 4: personal level, Ralph, when you are covering this story because

674
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 4: it is so charged and so many people care about it.

675
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 4: On one hand, you may have some I regret to

676
00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:55,759
Speaker 4: call them lesser conferences, but conferences with let's say, not

677
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 4: as much power as the Big two clearly trying to

678
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:03,240
Speaker 4: mount something of a pr campaign turn public opinion against

679
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:05,400
Speaker 4: some of these ideas that might be their best ploy

680
00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:08,239
Speaker 4: to gain some leverage. Meanwhile, you've got the Big Two

681
00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:11,680
Speaker 4: obviously they are at something of an impass as well.

682
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,880
Speaker 4: How do you report this story and be accurate because

683
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,960
Speaker 4: there are so many competing interests, and I mean just

684
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,880
Speaker 4: from Afar, it's hard to discern who is being genuine

685
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:24,600
Speaker 4: with what they're saying versus who is just trying to gain.

686
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,400
Speaker 3: A little bit more leverage in the court of public opinion. Yeah,

687
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:32,360
Speaker 3: it is. It is tricky, and you find yourself my

688
00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:34,680
Speaker 3: I tend to try to take a little bit of

689
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:39,200
Speaker 3: a less is more approach, which is a little frustrating, right,

690
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:41,640
Speaker 3: because as a reporter, you want is I want to

691
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 3: get more details and more information. I want to push more, like, Okay,

692
00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:46,839
Speaker 3: give me what you what you think on this, Let

693
00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 3: me get your perspective, let me get your perspective. But

694
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 3: because it is, it tends to be a little tinged

695
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:57,680
Speaker 3: with well, your perspective is your is your is is

696
00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 3: your is your spin? Right, So you want to try

697
00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:05,200
Speaker 3: to filter out some of the spin and just keep

698
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:09,560
Speaker 3: it and boil it down to more narrow issues. That's why,

699
00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:13,359
Speaker 3: like where we started, I was like, here's the main thing,

700
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 3: here's the decision tree, So let's kind of keep it

701
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:18,399
Speaker 3: within the realm of the decision tree. The other thing

702
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 3: I think you try to do is or I try

703
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:23,720
Speaker 3: to do, is take a little bit of a step

704
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:28,480
Speaker 3: back from the palace drama and the personality this person's upset.

705
00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 3: Oh that there's you know, there's friction here, and there's

706
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:40,759
Speaker 3: you know, discontent there. You know, like, yeah, definitely, But

707
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:45,400
Speaker 3: how relevant is that is hard to weigh. So I

708
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 3: try to try to filter out some of that stuff

709
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:53,799
Speaker 3: and stick to just where this is heading and the

710
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,960
Speaker 3: sort of relevant facts without getting drawn into the personal

711
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:01,200
Speaker 3: drama and who's not talking to who? Right? Who's pissed

712
00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:01,440
Speaker 3: off it?

713
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:03,359
Speaker 2: Wait a minute? Wait a minute, who's not talking to who?

714
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,279
Speaker 2: Though no, a few years ago there was a lot

715
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,840
Speaker 2: more of that. One of the I will say, like,

716
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:11,480
Speaker 2: the people do matter here, right, If the people in

717
00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:14,439
Speaker 2: real matter, Like the fact that sank and Petiti get

718
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:19,360
Speaker 2: along is a really big important deal. Like the fact

719
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:22,880
Speaker 2: that the two people who probably hold the most power

720
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:26,279
Speaker 2: in this situation sort of like each other and can

721
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 2: have like respectful conversations and respect each other's opinions. I

722
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 2: think is a reason why we will get to some

723
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 2: kind of resolution as opposed to I don't know, just

724
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,839
Speaker 2: being stuck in a ditch. Well, here's the interesting thing

725
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 2: about them getting along specifically, so they get along, which

726
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:46,680
Speaker 2: is good because they clearly have the most leverage in power.

727
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 2: And it's also interesting because that they have a working

728
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:56,280
Speaker 2: relationship because behind the scenes, I'm not so sure Disney,

729
00:39:56,640 --> 00:40:00,360
Speaker 2: ESPN and Fox are completely enamored with each other. They're

730
00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 2: obviously competing for teams and conferences and windows and ad dollars.

731
00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:09,880
Speaker 2: ESPN is the one right now who holds the leverage

732
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:13,239
Speaker 2: ESPN Disney because they are the short term owner of

733
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:16,080
Speaker 2: this playoff and the broadcast rights that they obviously have

734
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 2: the ability to sub license out to TNT. At this point,

735
00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 2: what does ESPN want, Even if they're saying that's not

736
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 2: up to us, that's not our responsibility, what do they

737
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:28,000
Speaker 2: actually want?

738
00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 3: Yeah, interesting dynamic in this, and I'm glad you got

739
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:36,480
Speaker 3: to it because I think there is an assumption that

740
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:39,319
Speaker 3: ESPN is the puppet master of the playoff and it

741
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:42,319
Speaker 3: gets whatever it wants. And I very much tell you

742
00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:48,720
Speaker 3: that if there's ever been a negotiation or an event

743
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:54,360
Speaker 3: that sort of belies that idea, it is this okay, folks.

744
00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:58,399
Speaker 3: I don't think ESPN wants any expansion, Like they are

745
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:02,160
Speaker 3: running out of windows to put these games and exclusive spots.

746
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:06,400
Speaker 3: They're another thing too, ESPN is not on the hook

747
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,640
Speaker 3: to pay more money for these for more playoff games.

748
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:12,160
Speaker 1: Or more SEC games at this point, right, they would

749
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:14,240
Speaker 1: be in the hook for more.

750
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 3: SEC games, but I think they do kind of want

751
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:20,160
Speaker 3: some more of the SEC games. Sure, but when you

752
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:23,120
Speaker 3: talk about like play in games, like I think Fox

753
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:27,319
Speaker 3: has a lot less inventory. Yep, big ten play in series. Oh,

754
00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:30,640
Speaker 3: that sounds like a cool idea, We'll do that. I

755
00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:34,520
Speaker 3: don't think the ESPN is like really dying for an

756
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:40,440
Speaker 3: SEC Championship weekend with a bunch more games. You know,

757
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:43,680
Speaker 3: they just did great numbers on the first for the

758
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 3: first SEC Championship game they've had in years. So I like,

759
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:51,680
Speaker 3: like ESPN's role in this is weird because like, I

760
00:41:51,719 --> 00:41:56,560
Speaker 3: don't think they're dying for any of the things that

761
00:41:56,840 --> 00:42:00,960
Speaker 3: are being talked about. But they but again, they you know,

762
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 3: unlike what the perception is. They don't just say do

763
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:08,319
Speaker 3: this and the and the group jumps, right.

764
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:15,960
Speaker 2: Is there is there conversation regarding expansion around well, the

765
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 2: NFL well around a schedule that requires Tuesday games, Thursday games,

766
00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 2: Friday games, which is obviously not you know, a traditional

767
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:28,680
Speaker 2: window for major college football games, and the unique nature

768
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:34,320
Speaker 2: of college football as a huge sport trying its best

769
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 2: to mimic the bigger, domestic version of this sport, whereas

770
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,920
Speaker 2: college baseball is different than Major League Baseball, and decidedly

771
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,880
Speaker 2: so their postseason. They're you know, the format of the games,

772
00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:48,560
Speaker 2: the equipment used in the games. The NCAA tournament stands

773
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:52,000
Speaker 2: alone with regard to you know, a one and done

774
00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 2: basketball tournament as opposed to a series, and it's just

775
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,399
Speaker 2: very different. The way the games are played, the way

776
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:01,680
Speaker 2: that the postseason and now college ball is saying, we

777
00:43:01,719 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 2: want to get closer and closer to this thing that

778
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:07,320
Speaker 2: is going to continue to swallow us in terms of attention.

779
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:11,640
Speaker 2: Is their self awareness there that college football, with each

780
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:15,399
Speaker 2: passing day is saying, let's get away from the main thing,

781
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 2: which I guess was bulls and try to mimic this

782
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,319
Speaker 2: thing that's always going to dwarf us.

783
00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:26,799
Speaker 3: So the thought process is not as philosophical as you're

784
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:29,040
Speaker 3: making it. Okay, you are far more thoughtful.

785
00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: It's the off season yeah, thank you.

786
00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:38,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, their issue, they're not concerned about the morphing into

787
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:41,239
Speaker 3: the I don't think. I don't sense that there is

788
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 3: a real concern about morphing into the NFL and then

789
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:49,680
Speaker 3: trying to compete against the NFL by becoming the NFL.

790
00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:53,880
Speaker 3: I think it's a much more base level problem which

791
00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:57,600
Speaker 3: we just referred to. Where do we play these games

792
00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,799
Speaker 3: so we're not being in gulf by the NFL like

793
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:06,040
Speaker 3: it literally is just a proximity issue. We have to

794
00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:10,160
Speaker 3: create some space where we can be the thing at

795
00:44:10,160 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 3: a time when the NFL, which is the biggest thing,

796
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:17,520
Speaker 3: is taking over everything. So how do we balance that

797
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:22,840
Speaker 3: from a schedule perspective, where and when we play the games?

798
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:25,279
Speaker 3: How much are we burying ourselves? How much do we

799
00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:27,479
Speaker 3: have to go head to head here? I think they've

800
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:30,319
Speaker 3: swallowed to a certain degree. Yes, at some point we're

801
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:32,600
Speaker 3: just going to have to eat it and go sort

802
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:36,080
Speaker 3: of head to head against the NFL. But it also

803
00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:39,759
Speaker 3: speaks to again the ESPN issue of them going like, hey,

804
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:44,359
Speaker 3: we paid one point whatever billion for this thing, and

805
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,840
Speaker 3: now you're giving us games that are played against Chiefs bills,

806
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:52,440
Speaker 3: Like that's not what we signed up for. Some of

807
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 3: this stuff might sort itself out by the NFL going

808
00:44:56,680 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 3: to an eighteen game schedule, putting in some extra buys. Now,

809
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:04,840
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, the NFL goes deeper. You've created

810
00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:07,160
Speaker 3: a little more space on the calendar for college football

811
00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:11,120
Speaker 3: not to be swallowed up. So it's a logistics problem

812
00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:14,800
Speaker 3: for the college football for college football and college football playoff.

813
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:18,880
Speaker 3: I don't think it is an existential issue to the

814
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:22,200
Speaker 3: idea what you're talking about, Dan, in terms of what

815
00:45:22,280 --> 00:45:24,279
Speaker 3: do we want to be? Right?

816
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:28,320
Speaker 1: Is there anybody in that room thinking long term?

817
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:29,040
Speaker 3: Oh? I think no.

818
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:33,319
Speaker 2: I think there are Okay, because that's the first question, right,

819
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:34,920
Speaker 2: If you're thinking long term, it's what do we want

820
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:35,879
Speaker 2: to be? Where is this going?

821
00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:39,359
Speaker 3: Yeah? No, but I think what they want to be. So,

822
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:42,880
Speaker 3: but you have to understand part of the reason why

823
00:45:43,760 --> 00:45:48,360
Speaker 3: we switched to this expanded playoff. I like to sometimes

824
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:51,359
Speaker 3: describe it as like this. Don't think of it as

825
00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:55,399
Speaker 3: an expanded playoff. All they did was take the BCS,

826
00:45:55,680 --> 00:46:00,279
Speaker 3: not the BCS, the the New York six games, New

827
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:04,680
Speaker 3: York City. I'm already forgetting the terminology changes every few years.

828
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:05,879
Speaker 1: It's okay, the.

829
00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:09,680
Speaker 3: Old New Year six games. All they did was say, Okay,

830
00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 3: now you're playoff games, right, We just wanted to put

831
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:17,279
Speaker 3: relevance on those games at a certain point. What they're

832
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:20,279
Speaker 3: going to do is the Citrus Bowl, we just want

833
00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:22,880
Speaker 3: to make that relevant. Well, what if we made it

834
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:26,960
Speaker 3: a early round playoff game when we expand to twenty

835
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 3: four at some point. Now, that's not happening anytime soon.

836
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:31,920
Speaker 3: By the way, just to be clear to your listeners,

837
00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:35,360
Speaker 3: they're not talking about a twenty fourteen playoff, right. But

838
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:39,279
Speaker 3: I think that's the philosophy of how do we keep

839
00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:43,840
Speaker 3: our postseason games relevant? How do we keep the race

840
00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:48,879
Speaker 3: to the postseason relevant for more and more of our schools. Well,

841
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:51,520
Speaker 3: how do you do that is you just take the

842
00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:55,840
Speaker 3: bowl games and say you're a playoff game. Now that

843
00:46:55,960 --> 00:47:00,200
Speaker 3: same Iowa Tennessee game is now a playoff game. It's

844
00:47:00,200 --> 00:47:03,600
Speaker 3: a playoff game. The players show up, people are excited

845
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:07,080
Speaker 3: about playing into it, people are excited about the result

846
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 3: of it. If it's just the bowl game, nobody cares

847
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:13,319
Speaker 3: about the fact that you're playing to get in it. Right,

848
00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:17,680
Speaker 3: the November stretch to get to the Citrus Bowl, nobody

849
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:21,440
Speaker 3: cares about anymore. And the Citrus Bowl itself is become

850
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:24,120
Speaker 3: just something that like, you and I care about it

851
00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:26,480
Speaker 3: because we care about all this stuff, right, and the

852
00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 3: betters care about it because they can bet on it.

853
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:33,400
Speaker 3: But so I think that's the crux of playoff expansion

854
00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:36,840
Speaker 3: is we have all these postseason games with good teams,

855
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:40,719
Speaker 3: with fan bases that care about those teams, but if

856
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:43,640
Speaker 3: they're not playoff games, nobody cares about them. So what

857
00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:45,799
Speaker 3: do you do? Wave your magic wand turn into a

858
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:46,479
Speaker 3: playoff game?

859
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:49,840
Speaker 2: So what's next? What is the next step on this journey?

860
00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:52,680
Speaker 2: Obviously the latest stories were just like they have thrown

861
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:54,520
Speaker 2: up their hands and they're starting all over.

862
00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:58,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is the next step? What is the next meeting? Okay, continue?

863
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:01,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not sure if it's a total restart, because

864
00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:05,400
Speaker 3: I don't think you're necessary. I do think you're okay sixteen.

865
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:08,360
Speaker 3: We're kind of cool with sixteen. I don't think the

866
00:48:08,360 --> 00:48:12,000
Speaker 3: big ten is relinquishing AQ and the idea of that.

867
00:48:12,360 --> 00:48:15,839
Speaker 3: In fact, I think maybe more than ever that ends

868
00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:18,879
Speaker 3: up being and guys, I pivot every day, Like if

869
00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:20,560
Speaker 3: you called me next week, I could tell you something

870
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:24,040
Speaker 3: different here. But I actually think that maybe the compromise

871
00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:29,400
Speaker 3: is because the secs there's a faction, and the faction

872
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:32,520
Speaker 3: being the guy who leads the damn league. Greg Sanke

873
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:35,239
Speaker 3: would so very much like to get them to go

874
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 3: to nine games that maybe they go, Okay, they get

875
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:42,920
Speaker 3: to let's go to nine conference games. Will have the aqs.

876
00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:45,600
Speaker 3: We'll get on board with what the Big ten wants.

877
00:48:45,880 --> 00:48:48,800
Speaker 3: That gives us the protection that we want for playing

878
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:51,680
Speaker 3: these games. It allows us to have a series with

879
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:54,960
Speaker 3: the Big Ten, and that makes us more money too.

880
00:48:55,680 --> 00:48:58,560
Speaker 3: So I do find myself wondering if the Big Ten

881
00:48:58,719 --> 00:49:02,279
Speaker 3: might end up getting its way here, because the SEC

882
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:06,719
Speaker 3: sees that as the better path to getting not necessarily

883
00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:12,000
Speaker 3: the ideal playoff, but to getting the ideal revenue generator

884
00:49:12,120 --> 00:49:17,280
Speaker 3: throughout their entire football operation. His name is Ralph Russo.

885
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:20,400
Speaker 3: He is a senior writer for the Athletic. We'll be

886
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:25,359
Speaker 3: watching your reporting like a North Carolina red tailed hawk. Ralph,

887
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:27,040
Speaker 3: if it was a red tailed HOWK if it was

888
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:29,239
Speaker 3: the best tail, it was the best thing you ate

889
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:32,879
Speaker 3: in Ashville good food town. It is a good food town,

890
00:49:32,920 --> 00:49:35,320
Speaker 3: and so I will I will plug. My colleague David

891
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:39,560
Speaker 3: Oven from the Athletic is obsessed with food to an

892
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:42,680
Speaker 3: extent that I like, like I was a little taken aback.

893
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:47,200
Speaker 3: Like every moment with David was either eating or talking

894
00:49:47,239 --> 00:49:51,160
Speaker 3: about where we were going to. Love that. Okay, so

895
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:53,279
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm a healthy person. I like to eat.

896
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 3: Like I'm Italian, I like to eat. But it was

897
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:59,840
Speaker 3: a bit much like that, the constant steering back, because that, frankly, guys,

898
00:50:00,120 --> 00:50:02,720
Speaker 3: that's what my eighty year old parents do in Florida.

899
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:06,520
Speaker 3: They're either eating a meal or they're talking about what

900
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:08,080
Speaker 3: the next meal will be.

901
00:50:08,160 --> 00:50:10,400
Speaker 2: I would I would get along with them. So well, continue,

902
00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:12,839
Speaker 2: You're going to be a great retireing. Thank you so much.

903
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:13,480
Speaker 2: That's the best thing.

904
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:15,600
Speaker 3: You're going to be retiring. So the best thing I

905
00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:18,760
Speaker 3: ate was there's a place called the Liberty House Cafe.

906
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:21,360
Speaker 3: It's a go in, order your food at the counter

907
00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:23,520
Speaker 3: and they bring it to you. It's a lovely spot

908
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:27,799
Speaker 3: by the way garden outside seating. They do a it

909
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:33,400
Speaker 3: seems like, I think a baked sour dough buttermilk pancake. Yep,

910
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:36,720
Speaker 3: it was really really yummy. I mean it was really

911
00:50:36,719 --> 00:50:40,400
Speaker 3: really he like now again, David, most of the conversation

912
00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:43,280
Speaker 3: over the next thirty six hours was about the pana pancake.

913
00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:44,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, the sour dough pancakes.

914
00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:47,680
Speaker 3: I'm still getting texts about the pancake, right, it was

915
00:50:47,719 --> 00:50:49,560
Speaker 3: a real but I will say it was a really

916
00:50:49,600 --> 00:50:51,719
Speaker 3: good pancake. I have blueberries in mine. It was an

917
00:50:51,719 --> 00:50:52,680
Speaker 3: excellent pancake.

918
00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:53,920
Speaker 1: I continue.

919
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:57,719
Speaker 3: I have nothing further. Okay, I have nothing further. His

920
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:01,000
Speaker 3: name again, Ralph Russo. Find all of great work out

921
00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:04,320
Speaker 3: at the Athletic. Keep doing good things. We're gonna be

922
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 3: following it. We're gonna be counting on you, Ralph. Thank

923
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:09,040
Speaker 3: you so much. Thanks guys. It was a pleasure and

924
00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:11,560
Speaker 3: an honor and all those things, and uh yeah, very

925
00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:14,520
Speaker 3: much of what Maybe maybe we can make it less

926
00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:16,319
Speaker 3: than ten years. We're really sure.

927
00:51:16,719 --> 00:51:18,120
Speaker 1: Next the next pizzas on me.

928
00:51:18,520 --> 00:51:21,640
Speaker 3: Thanks guys, all right, one more time. That is Ralph

929
00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:27,399
Speaker 3: Russo's senior reporter, senior writer for The Athletic. We're very

930
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:29,160
Speaker 3: pleased to have him back on the show. It's been

931
00:51:29,200 --> 00:51:30,799
Speaker 3: far too long. Yeah.

932
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:36,560
Speaker 2: A lot of his work is trying to explain, like

933
00:51:37,520 --> 00:51:39,680
Speaker 2: if you were to ask somebody like, hey, real quick,

934
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:42,080
Speaker 2: could you give me top level about the sort of

935
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 2: culture and geopolitics of India, You're just like, oh man,

936
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:47,600
Speaker 2: how much time do you have? There's a lot going

937
00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:51,480
Speaker 2: on here, and I appreciate his ability to sort of

938
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:55,320
Speaker 2: make sense of it all in sort of an alchemy way,

939
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:58,359
Speaker 2: and he's making sense of something that to a lot

940
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:00,960
Speaker 2: of people, I think ourselves included, doesn't fully makes sense.

941
00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:04,720
Speaker 2: So always great to hear his perspective on these types

942
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:08,040
Speaker 2: of conversations, and you know, him being very patient with

943
00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 2: me asking questions that amount to like why are we

944
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:13,360
Speaker 2: just why are we doing this at all? And I

945
00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:14,880
Speaker 2: just you know, I got to get those off of

946
00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:15,640
Speaker 2: my chest.

947
00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:19,919
Speaker 4: Something that I think is underrated. You and I both

948
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:24,759
Speaker 4: worked in an office setting for years. Yeah, and anybody

949
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:28,120
Speaker 4: listening to this who goes into the office or has

950
00:52:28,120 --> 00:52:29,880
Speaker 4: been in that situation is going to know exactly what

951
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:32,040
Speaker 4: I'm talking about. But on occasion, there's a big meeting

952
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:34,080
Speaker 4: that everybody knows about. Maybe you're not in it, but.

953
00:52:34,160 --> 00:52:39,120
Speaker 3: All hands, all hands meeting. It's important, it's meaningful, and

954
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:42,040
Speaker 3: there's a lot of i'll use his word, palace intrigue

955
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:44,000
Speaker 3: around what goes on in that room, the room where

956
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:49,200
Speaker 3: it happens. Dan, and I know from experience that being

957
00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:52,239
Speaker 3: on the outside of those meetings, when you get like

958
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:55,880
Speaker 3: the report as to what happened it's never really that exciting. No,

959
00:52:56,680 --> 00:52:58,359
Speaker 3: it's really not that exciting.

960
00:52:58,040 --> 00:52:59,520
Speaker 1: But you kind of just want to be in the room.

961
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:01,200
Speaker 3: I don't want to be in a room where it happens.

962
00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:04,399
Speaker 4: It was a whole song on Hamilton, but like, it's

963
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:08,640
Speaker 4: never quite as exciting from the outside in. And I

964
00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:11,920
Speaker 4: suspect that if you are covering this story, it's a

965
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:15,920
Speaker 4: lot of waiting around, it's a lot of getting secondhand information.

966
00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:20,040
Speaker 4: There is probably, on some human level, an impulse to

967
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:22,239
Speaker 4: make it a little bit more dramatic than it actually is.

968
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:27,200
Speaker 4: And so I credit guys like Ralph, like Ross Dellinger,

969
00:53:28,239 --> 00:53:30,360
Speaker 4: plenty of people out there working this beat who I

970
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:33,080
Speaker 4: think are doing a really good job, not really ginning

971
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:36,239
Speaker 4: this up as some sort of soap opera that's for

972
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:37,400
Speaker 4: idiots like us to do.

973
00:53:37,719 --> 00:53:38,120
Speaker 1: Correct.

974
00:53:38,200 --> 00:53:40,040
Speaker 4: But Ralph has done a really good job in his

975
00:53:40,080 --> 00:53:42,080
Speaker 4: own right reporting out the facts of the story, as

976
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:44,759
Speaker 4: he said, trying to be simple with it wherever he can,

977
00:53:44,840 --> 00:53:46,520
Speaker 4: even though it is complex in its own right.

978
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:49,799
Speaker 3: I appreciate that style.

979
00:53:49,520 --> 00:53:52,520
Speaker 4: Of reporting with something like this that again is charged

980
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:54,719
Speaker 4: and could go a million different directions, and everybody's got

981
00:53:54,760 --> 00:53:57,520
Speaker 4: an opinion on it. But he does a really good job,

982
00:53:57,600 --> 00:54:00,759
Speaker 4: just sort of presenting the fat they are.

983
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:05,400
Speaker 2: I totally agree. I'm here for the palace intrigue.

984
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:08,040
Speaker 3: Though I'm down for the palace entrigue, don't get me wrong,

985
00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:09,360
Speaker 3: but I'm just saying he does beuch.

986
00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:11,480
Speaker 1: A weird connection, not to manufacturing it.

987
00:54:11,600 --> 00:54:14,239
Speaker 2: You know, here's a weird connection between Jim Phillips and

988
00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:17,759
Speaker 2: Greg Sank. Their daughters actually were on the same I

989
00:54:17,800 --> 00:54:22,319
Speaker 2: was like, what nobody mentioned that. I yeah, I'm here

990
00:54:22,320 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 2: for it because it's all entertaining to me on a

991
00:54:24,480 --> 00:54:28,640
Speaker 2: certain level. But also it is very strange because this

992
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:33,120
Speaker 2: seems to be the one major sport that from like

993
00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:35,759
Speaker 2: the NFL is like, should Jalen Hurts be allowed to

994
00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:38,680
Speaker 2: be pushed from behind on fourth and short? That's like

995
00:54:38,760 --> 00:54:41,880
Speaker 2: the big off season story. From like an administrative perspective.

996
00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:44,360
Speaker 2: The NBA teams just keep on selling. But there's nothing

997
00:54:44,680 --> 00:54:46,880
Speaker 2: terribly different, and there's questions about like, oh, the NFL

998
00:54:46,920 --> 00:54:50,440
Speaker 2: might go to eight games eighteen games, or the NBA

999
00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:52,759
Speaker 2: should go back to seventy games or something like that.

1000
00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:59,280
Speaker 2: But it's not a crazy postseason organizational madness meeting, right.

1001
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:00,920
Speaker 3: I Mean, there are only the two sports that I

1002
00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:04,560
Speaker 3: can think of that right now, feel like they are

1003
00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:07,759
Speaker 3: hinging on decisions being made in a conference room. One

1004
00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:10,000
Speaker 3: of them is golf, which we're not a golf show.

1005
00:55:10,080 --> 00:55:12,560
Speaker 2: That you're talking about, like Live and PGA and that's

1006
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:15,960
Speaker 2: all together, yeah, in and of itself, right, college football

1007
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:16,800
Speaker 2: would be the second.

1008
00:55:18,160 --> 00:55:19,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and.

1009
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:21,840
Speaker 3: I hate it. I hate that part of it, but

1010
00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:23,480
Speaker 3: that's just reality. That's where we're at.

1011
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:26,360
Speaker 2: I just like to think about this in terms of

1012
00:55:26,680 --> 00:55:31,120
Speaker 2: other sports behaving as if college football is the path forward,

1013
00:55:31,160 --> 00:55:34,000
Speaker 2: where like now there's a commissioner of the National League

1014
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:37,920
Speaker 2: Central standing on the table demanding the Brewers get a spot.

1015
00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:41,000
Speaker 2: It's like it's just not an issue anywhere else. And

1016
00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:42,680
Speaker 2: you know, maybe that's the appeal point, you know, the

1017
00:55:42,680 --> 00:55:45,120
Speaker 2: feature or bug kind of thing. But it is funny

1018
00:55:45,160 --> 00:55:48,080
Speaker 2: to think about how insane college football has been just

1019
00:55:48,239 --> 00:55:50,840
Speaker 2: changing by the way, just a preview to the preview.

1020
00:55:50,840 --> 00:55:53,760
Speaker 2: A lot of this is in Bill Connelly's forthcoming book

1021
00:55:54,120 --> 00:55:57,640
Speaker 2: The Last The different roads taken by various conferences in

1022
00:55:57,680 --> 00:56:01,799
Speaker 2: the sport trying to organize itself every few years, which is,

1023
00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:04,680
Speaker 2: you know, without a central governing body, and then various

1024
00:56:04,680 --> 00:56:09,719
Speaker 2: central governing bodies coming up and falling away it's an insane,

1025
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:12,640
Speaker 2: insane timeline that Bill does a really good job of capturing.

1026
00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:15,680
Speaker 2: So I think that's out closer to the season forward progress.

1027
00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:17,840
Speaker 2: But uh, just look out for that and we'll have

1028
00:56:17,920 --> 00:56:22,360
Speaker 2: Bill on closer to that point. But all is absolutely true.

1029
00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:23,560
Speaker 3: I love it well.

1030
00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:26,200
Speaker 4: Again, big thanks to Ralph for hopping on with us

1031
00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:28,719
Speaker 4: here and letting us pick his brain about what's all

1032
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:32,000
Speaker 4: going down. We'll have to pay close attention to upcoming

1033
00:56:32,040 --> 00:56:35,040
Speaker 4: reports if there are any. I'm assuming there will be

1034
00:56:35,400 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 4: over the next few weeks and months. Again, that deadline

1035
00:56:38,719 --> 00:56:43,160
Speaker 4: is December of the first. Speaking of deadlines, July the

1036
00:56:43,239 --> 00:56:46,000
Speaker 4: first is when we are aiming to get our first

1037
00:56:46,040 --> 00:56:46,560
Speaker 4: preview out.

1038
00:56:46,560 --> 00:56:49,600
Speaker 3: As I said at the top of the show, we've.

1039
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:51,840
Speaker 4: Got our intro to the season. Then we're going to

1040
00:56:51,920 --> 00:56:55,480
Speaker 4: dive into the Group of six. We've got two episodes

1041
00:56:55,520 --> 00:56:59,759
Speaker 4: slated for Group of six, and then moving forward, we've

1042
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:03,600
Speaker 4: got three episodes for all the power conferences, sort of

1043
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:05,759
Speaker 4: the bigger picture look, the high level stuff. Then we're

1044
00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:08,480
Speaker 4: gonna go into individual teams, give you a bit of

1045
00:57:08,480 --> 00:57:11,680
Speaker 4: a preview there, enough to be dangerous. Again, if you

1046
00:57:11,719 --> 00:57:14,080
Speaker 4: read your message boards or your team sites, you're always

1047
00:57:14,080 --> 00:57:16,320
Speaker 4: probably gonna know your team better than us here like

1048
00:57:16,960 --> 00:57:20,160
Speaker 4: bigger picture national show stuff. But we're gonna do our

1049
00:57:20,200 --> 00:57:23,560
Speaker 4: part to be as comprehensive and as thorough as we

1050
00:57:23,600 --> 00:57:28,040
Speaker 4: can from our little thirty thousand foot perch and hopefully

1051
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:31,320
Speaker 4: give you reasons to care, if nothing more, reasons to

1052
00:57:31,360 --> 00:57:33,040
Speaker 4: care about all of these teams and conferences.

1053
00:57:33,040 --> 00:57:33,880
Speaker 3: That's what we're here for.

1054
00:57:34,360 --> 00:57:37,600
Speaker 4: Agree, Why don't we leave it there again? Big thanks

1055
00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:40,360
Speaker 4: to our guest of honor today. Big thanks to you

1056
00:57:40,520 --> 00:57:44,120
Speaker 4: the verballer hood for your ongoing support, Hit follow, hit subscribe,

1057
00:57:44,200 --> 00:57:47,880
Speaker 4: check out verbalers dot com for that guy over there,

1058
00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:50,520
Speaker 4: my good friend Dan Rubinstein Form myself Tie Hillebrand, thank

1059
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:53,880
Speaker 4: you again, Catch you all soon, Stay solid, peace,