Play-In Games for CFP?, Most Intriguing Coaches, Best Week on CFB Schedule | Others Receiving Votes

All right.

Welcome to the show.

Others receiving votes.

I'm Pat 40 joined by my, by my Sports Illustrated colleagues, Kevin Sweeney and back from vacation, Brian Fisher.

And Brian was in Australia.

Uh, was everybody there glued to the actions in Congress on the, uh, the, the Protect College Sports Act bill, Brian?

Uh, no, I don't, I don't think so, you know, I, I wrote a column, uh, before I left and, uh, filed it, and, uh, not much changed while I went down under and, uh, survived the, uh, the 2 15 hour flights with, uh, with two kids under 7.

So, uh, it, it was nice, it was, it was lovely.

I, I, I love visiting in winter, particularly, uh, Sydney and Melbourne, two of my favorite cities.

It was a great trip.

Good to be refreshed and back, and, uh, excited to dive into some actual college football because it is just around the corner.

It is, um, we'll get there on the show, uh, we'll get there eventually in this season, this month.

By the end, we'll actually have football, and not a minute too soon, because, uh, The whole, the more things change, the more things stay the same, as you alluded to.

Uh, there is no Senate bill.

There is no congressional magic bullet yet for college sports.

And, oh, they're also still squabbling about the playoffs.

That's where we're gonna start here today.

Uh, we'll hit that, we'll hit Congress.

Um, a disturbing trend that the FBI is looking into, involving college athletes, um.

My most intriguing coaches list, uh, and what's the best week of the season.

We'll talk about all those things.

But let's start with the playoffs.

Today is Monday, August 10th, and the playoff powers that be are meeting.

Um , as usual, not much is expected to actually happen in terms of definitive results, but a significant meeting nonetheless.

Uh, all the commissioners are involved and other stakeholders, and that includes ESPN which, according to our friend Ross Dellinger, Is socializing with college football player leaders, a 16-team format with 4 play-in games for the final 4 spots in the field, that seeds 13 through 16.

There's an expectation it will be discussed during today's meeting.

Uh, shockingly, I've already heard the Big 10 doesn't like it.

The Big 10, pretty firmly entrenched on 24 and has a lot of company as of now.

The SEC and ESPN, it would seem, which is the rights holder for the playoff, uh, still looking for ways to keep this at 16.

So we will see what happens when these two.

Disagreeing entities collide here.

Uh, again, the, the, the, I think there's not really a belief that, that there's gonna be anything substantive on the future format of the playoffs until You know, maybe late September, or as usual, they could kick the can down the road as far as humanly possible and keep everybody waiting into December or January again.

So, I don't know where that's gonna end up, but this is an interesting new wrinkle.

We have heard and heard and heard about 24, 16, 212.

This is a different wrinkle on 16, which would create play-in games.

Uh, I would bet my bottom dollar that team seeded 13 to 16, this would obviously include your group of six representatives so that they would be given basically the Dayton 1st 4 treatment if this were basketball, because Lord knows we don't want them in the main bracket.

If we can exclude them, please, let's .

So, uh, an interesting wrinkle here, uh, just first reactions, guys, to that, and any, what do you think the viability is?

Uh, Brian, what do you think?

Well, and I was told , uh, no, don't expect any decisions made this week.

That, that's the one thing I think that we gotta keep iterating, and this is part of the, part of the process, you know, uh, they have hired a media consultant in octagon.

They've, they've gone out to the market a little bit more than they have, like this is very much more of a Kind of, uh, informational session, if, if you will.

And I think that the arrival of ESPN to the table is, is definitely more notable in terms of the actual hands-on.

We, we know through the SEC they've not necessarily super happy about going to 24 and I think it's always important to keep in the back of your Mind, no matter what, they have the games 1 through 14.

Like that, that's what they've, they've paid for.

Anything beyond that is really what's going to be going to market, what's, what's up for grabs.

That's what, you know, Fox, CBS, NBC, other, other entities would be able to bid on.

And I think there's still some, some questions, I think, amongst the commissioners in terms of, all right, how much are those actual games worth?

And I think they're gonna have to find out a little bit.

Uh, not only in terms of format, how many of those games, where they would be played, but also, you know, maybe a ballpark figure, um, in terms of what they would need to, to get out of this deal, uh, to make it worthwhile.

And I think that's still where, uh, ultimately the rubber meets the road in, in this entire process, you know, is the money going to be there?

I think it was also notable before this meeting that, uh, you also had some, some, uh, information come out about the NFL deals.

Um, you know, it doesn't seem like Fox is going to go back to the table.

In terms of, uh, discussions with the NFL, it seems like CBS, those talks have been paused, uh, given the merger considerations there.

So a lot of media, um, machinations behind the scenes that I think are, are going to ultimately impact the, the college football playoff.

They're probably some more positive news on that front.

But, um, you know, again, I think this is going to come down to a stalemate between the Big 10 and the SEC.

And that's why of the options on the table that they're going to consider, remaining at 12 is still one of them.

Yeah, uh, look, I like the idea of playing games.

I've seen numerous different formats that included.

I like the fact that, you know, ESPN is bringing this to the table, but at the end of the day, it just feels like, you know, useless discourse in a lot of ways until we figure out like, At the end of the day, ESPN AKA the SEC or the SEC AKA ESPN, however you want to order this, wants to keep this thing relatively small, and the Big 10 wants to keep it big so that Fox can get involved.

Like, it doesn't seem like it's all that complicated here, and I don't really see how we move the goalpost to win.

Like, I don't know what the sacrifice is that gets one side on board with the other.

Like I, I, I don't see like the easy chip that you can give.

So, I, I, I, I don't, I don't know how you get to, uh, agreement here, other than if, you know, one side feels like they can't get their teams into the playoffs in this 12 team format and realizes like for the good of our league's success, we need to move this, right?

If somehow the Big 10 started dominating the 12 team playoff, like in terms of bids, not just winning the thing.

Then maybe there's a conversation like, hey, we, we, we, we may need to look into the nuclear option here and give Fox what they want in order to make sure we have 67 SEC teams that are playing for the national championship every year.

But again, I, other than that, like I, I, I, I, I'm very bearish on the idea that this is all gonna get solved in 1 month or solved in 2 months.

Like I, I just have a hard time believing that like these lines are gonna be easy to, uh, to redraw here and then I, I get it from both sides, but You know, I also don't know that anyone's happy with 12 right now.

Uh, I, I, I, I think the media is pretty happy with 12, like I think we, we don't mind 12, but like it doesn't seem like any of the commissioners like 12, so I, I, I, I don't know how we do this.

The media likes 12.

I think the public likes 12.

I haven't heard, you know, anybody saying that 12 is terrible.

If anything, I've heard more people probably saying it's too big than not big enough.

Uh, you know, I think there's certainly factions from leagues that feel like they would benefit from 24 or whatever the number would be, you know, if, if you are, In the Big 12, and you wanna see 2 or 3 teams or whatever get in, or if you're from the ACC maybe you're of that uh persuasion, but I, I think the, the general football fan, if they, if, I think general football fans are almost better than the actual people involved at looking past the end of their nose and saying, I kind of just like this playoff as it is, as opposed to what's best for my league.

You know, I, I just, the, the differing viewpoints of how to look at this, and it's always coming back to self-interest for the conferences.

I don't like playing games, you know, I, I mean, I don't know.

They, I guess to a degree, conference championship games are playing games, and maybe this would be a substitution for that.

There's still so many issues and problems, shortcomings, I guess I would say, not really problems, shortcomings with most of the formats beyond 12.

And 12 is not perfect, but I like 12.

I'm fine with 12.

And if they stalemate and stay at 12, beautiful.

No problem with me.

The, but it's like this ESPN suggestion of the 13 to 1413 to 16 play-in games, who's involved, who chooses those teams?

How that fits into the calendar, and this, we go back to the, the, the constant calendar issue, which the Big 10, Tony Pettitti at Big 10 Me Days basically threw up his hand and said, yeah, the calendar's a problem.

We know it.

We want 24, we don't know how to do it, but we want 24.

Uh, and, and I think the issue there is that.

Conference championship games have to get nuked for that, and probably some other stuff needs to happen, including a week 0 start.

I still think, I, I'm, I'm not a fan of conference championship games as a concept, but I do think it's nice to be able to say who won a conference, like, have a champion.

And it's harder to do that when your conference is 18 or 16 or 17 or whatever, because they don't play each other, and the leagues all brought this on themselves, like, oh, well, you know, we, we, we, we don't know who should be the best teams, well, it's partly your problem.

You killed the Pac-12.

You, uh, kneecap the Big 12 , and then that you, you want that problem to trickle downhill on top of everybody else, so.

If it were up to me, I'm rooting for stalemate.

I'm rooting for both sides to dig in.

And say, we got nothing and we play at 12 for the foreseeable future.

I don't know.

What do you think the chances of that are, Brian?

I, I, I think it's still pretty high because I, I think there's still some, some loggerheads between the Big 10 and the SEC which obviously control where we're, where we're going from here.

And I, I, I think there's still, um, you know, some concerns over especially like where, where, where's this money gonna go, you know, how is it going to be split up if you have to make up for those conference championship games?

Like, let's face it, you know, the SEC.

And the Big 10 are just in an entirely different tax bracket from the Big 12 and the ACC.

The Big 12 and the ACC are gonna give up their championship games to, to go along with this plan.

How much are they gonna get for that?

You know, are they, are they gonna get, uh, parity on that?

And, you know, the thing about the, the playing games in particular, you know, as soon as I heard this, um, you know, maybe a day or two ago, like the thing that came to my mind is this ESPN's, um, trying to appease kind of the, the media partners to get the money right.

You know, to actually make the expansion happen, uh, but on their own terms.

And I'm, I was thinking like, is this the, the eventizing, uh, uh, aspect of college football to where you can sell this kind of package, if you will, to a Netflix or an Amazon and say, all right, you own playing weekend, right, in college football.

That seems like that's something that would be attractive to some of the streamers out there.

Uh, you have ESPN produce the games for you, so you don't have to worry about that.

And here's a way where we can kind of make everybody, you know, maybe not fully happy, but, but potentially, uh, happy enough to where they kind of, kind of go along with these plans.

Maybe it does, um, you know, you do, you do kind of explore, um, all right, does this make some of those non-conference games, you know, uh, you're able to schedule them a little bit more with knowing that the, the risk maybe is not quite as good or, or quite as, quite, quite as, uh, you know, intense, uh, as it, as it currently is in a twelve-team format.

And I think that's There's still a lot to, to be explored in this, but, uh, I, I, I still think that because the SEC has never been fully on board with 24 and the money is not necessarily there for everybody, um, you know, I think we are still staring at, at, uh, a, a long fall, uh, going into that December 1st deadline of saying, all right, well, we've discussed this, we've, we've gotten bids, and at the end of the day, we still cannot come to an agreement, so we're gonna stick around for 12 and we're gonna do this whole thing again for another year.

Yeah, I, I, I think that's where it goes personally, um, you know, I could be wrong, and, you know, Megan.

I, I think the thing that stands out to me most is that throughout this entire playoff process for, for years now, it has been a constant battle of like, man, there's no way we could have seen this crazy outcome coming, and then it happens in like a year.

Uh, and I, I, I, I, I just think like that maybe that's the only way that everybody gets on board is that there's another weird crazy 12 team playoff where everybody just says, man, this is not, this isn't gonna work for us , like we gotta find a way to, you know, not let perfect be the enemy of good, but I don't know , again, I don't know what that looks like, so I, I.

I, I, I, it's a part of why I would be happy to stay at 12 for a little while and see what happens, right?

Like, why, why don't we actually work out the kinks with one system before we change it to the next, right?

Why, why, why, why can't we just do that?

It doesn't seem that complicated to me, but I don't know, we'll see.

It, it, it's astounding, yes.

I mean, the rush to constantly meddle with the postseason, even when it's successful.

But if there's any chance it could be slightly more lucrative, by God, let's wrench a few more dollars out of it.

That's the, the driving force here.

And we'll see whether this, you know, this ESPN plan would put more money on the table, as you said, Brian, you know, whether they're, it's outsourcing games to a, to a, another.

Uh, broadcast entity that or streaming entity that could, that could pump a whole bunch more money into it or whatever.

But this also, it, it does go back to the, why are they so desperate for money?

Well, one, because they're greedy, and that's the American way.

When you, when you have a lot of money, you're always desperately more hungry for more money.

But secondly, because there is no cost containment.

And that remains the case for now , thanks to the At best, status quo of the Senate bill, at worst, it may be dying on the vine, um, as came down at like 3 a.m. Saturday morning, I think, Eastern time.

Uh, the Protect College Sports Act is tabled until September.

When it will apparently allegedly get onto the docket for a Senate vote, at least that's the promise, and we'll see what shape it's in by then, because some people point out that does that gives an entire another month to people to mess around with the bill for.

Elected officials to solicit more input and more dollars for their campaigns, which they're busy running now for the next couple of months , and add more ballast to a bill that's way too big and way too fat.

That's our biggest problem, I think here is.

The Protect College Sports Act became an absolute three-ring carnival of this, that, and everything else as opposed to a narrowly focused bill that could actually address 1 or 2 or 3 items that I think a lot of people agree on.

It became special interest laden.

It became Uh, to a degree, an attack on the Big 10 and the SEC, and then it became the Big 10 and the SEC countering, uh, it became So many ridiculous things, including the pardon the rant here, but this this insistence by some people that it includes language that bans men from women's sports.

Guess what?

That's already there.

The NCAA has those rules.

This is grandstanding on an issue that barely exists.

It barely exists as an issue, and we are talking about this like it needs to be jammed into some Senate bill to save college sports.

Good God, people, focus on what we can control here and something that matters, like how much the NIL budget is, like how many times players can transfer, like how many years you can stay in college.

Instead, we are all over the frigging map.

Kevin Sweeney, where do we stand?

We got a month now to sit around and wait for this bill .

Is it dead?

Should it be dead?

What's gonna happen?

What do you want to happen?

I don't think it's dead.

I think there's a real world where, you know, in a month that there's still enough support for this to get through the Senate.

I think the, uh, the dream and the posturing that, you know, Ted Cruz and, and Maria Cantwell and Eric Schmidt and all the other people that have been.

Uh, the most vocal about this bill have stated that, yeah, this has wide support, it's gonna get 80 votes, it's gonna cruise through.

I think that has proven to be, uh, a bit of a pipe dream, right?

And so I think the question is, if it doesn't enter the House, assuming it gets to the House, if it doesn't enter the House with 75, 80 votes, if it enters with 61 or 62 and it just kind of sneaks by.

Is that enough of a mandate for the House not to say, yeah, we've, we've just had a month to line our campaign pockets and throw more, you know, throw more pork into this bill, like, why not?

and just slow the thing down until, uh, until it can't get done in September and then all of a sudden, We're looking at past the midterms and who knows what happens past the midterms, but I do know that, yes, spending time worrying about uh trans athletes, spending time, you know, with, with like Trump's grand endorsement, like that's not helping build this like bipartisan coalition.

If that's the goal here, like the, the, if you care about the bill getting passed, these are the things you stop doing and it's, again, I think this is probably not specific to college sports, uh, bills in Congress, like.

People care a little less about getting bills passed than they do like getting on social media or getting on TV and announcing how much, you know, they care about their one issue, right?

And that's, that's the issue with our government today, it's the issue with the NCAA getting into bed.

With our government, but I'd also say this, like, I, I don't think.

I think a lot of people have, have taken this as the opportunity to say, yeah, Congress was never gonna help.

Congress seemed kind of ready to help, and the Big 10 and the SEC made it, made their life incredibly difficult, and they dragged this process out.

I understand the bill's full of, full of fat.

If I, uh, again, to me it's probably not my preferred solution, but if this was the solution on the table and you actually did care about limited antitrust exemption for things like the portal, things like NIL, uh, things like, you know, enforcing the CSC, like, Why was it not, uh, yes, thank you, you finally came to our aid after 6 years, right?

Like, it is proof to me that the Big 10 and the SEC, no matter what they say, don't care that much about getting congressional intervention because this is the broken system works well enough for them right now.

If, if the broken system was truly so broken, For those schools, they would not have spent, you know, their, their time kicking and screaming to the end of this bill, and I, I, so, so, so yes, I think the frustrations with Congress are real.

Uh, I think it's very, you know, I, I think it's undoubtedly true that this is what you signed up for when you decided to put, put your eggs into the Congress basket.

I also think if, if Congress was the be all end all, you had to take what Congress was gonna give you, and Congress seemed ready to give them something, and they decided to fight back.

You ask for a political solution, you're gonna get politics involved and that's simply what happened, you know, I mean, uh, and, and I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier.

I mean, I, I think obviously deadlines for action and that was kind of why, but, you know, to, to see this bill get caught up in the culture wars, like no surprise at all, you know, as, as somebody who's seen things like this happen in Washington and I, I think to, to not expect that if you were some of the commissioners or college leaders, I mean that is, that is putting your hand.

Uh, in, in, in the sand 6 ft under.

And it, it's crazy to me that they didn't kind of anticipate this, that this was not kind of part of some of their strategy to kind of head this off to, to, you know, and, and they have met with a lot of senators.

They've, they've talked with just about everybody on the hill.

Certainly, they spent enough money on K Street there to get enough lobbyists, uh, to, to make their case.

I mean, even the, you know, the SEC has like changed their firm, uh, early in the spring, like they're, they're paying some, some significant bucks, um, in order to Uh, make their voices heard, but, um, you know, the fact is, like this, this was always going to be, um, an issue where as, as much as college sports leaders wanted something, uh, you know, out of this bill, um, politics is gonna come into play, and, and, and that it did, and I, I think they probably, in terms of Pat's original question, like, do, do I see something happening in September?

I could see it, but I, I think It's probably got a better, better chance in maybe a lame duck session of Congress after the midterms, after everybody kind of can, can regroup a little bit, um, after there's not that pressure, um, certainly, and I think, you know, frankly, you know, for some of the Democrats too, like that might be on the fence of supporting this, like that might be the, the one opportunity where you can kind of say, all right, well, they, they need something, you know, you're in the middle of the season.

Um, you know, like there, there could be some external pressures that, um, you know, certainly from the Republicans that, that currently control both houses, like maybe that, that's the, the opportunity to kind of get this over the line to say, hey, look, you know what, we, we, we did this, we accomplished this, we protected college sports.

I, I could see that more in a, in a lame duck situation than, than say in September, um, where it does become a bit of a campaign issue .

And the other thing too, like I, I'm very curious to see, as, as these House members go back to their districts, as, as the senators go back to their states.

And, and they're out there trying to fundraise for a very, let's say, probably the most expensive midterm campaign, uh, I think we, we've ever seen in our lifetime, certainly, um, you know, is there gonna be a little bit of pushback from, from some of their regular donors?

Well, you know, actually, you know, I'd rather spend my $2 million that I might donate to your super PAC on a backup left tackle or a backup center.

Like, are, are they gonna actually come into the realities of , of What the, the college sports industry has become, uh, with, with certain donors and all that.

Maybe they, maybe they don't, maybe they're still, uh, the Cody Campbell's out there cutting checks to, um, you know, and, and making donations, but, uh, you know, I do think that the donor fatigue is real in college sports.

I'm curious that they're gonna run into any of that as they go out and fundraise a little bit, uh, for a very expensive midterms, and I, I think that's, that hovers over this whole congressional solution.

And, uh, and truth, I do think you are hearing more and more, especially at the athletic director level, is this the thing that is gonna spur on, all right, well, let's, what, what does collective bargaining look like?

How are we gonna be able to structure this?

Who, what kind of lawyers and all that are, are we gonna have to contact to maybe get something over the line?

Maybe this does kind of, uh, at least provide an avenue, uh, towards a Plan B.

I, I, I'm not, uh, not any, um, I think we're we're any closer to actually going down that route than we were , uh, you know, a week or two ago, but, uh, maybe, maybe, uh, this deadline will spur that action down the road as well.

Yeah, I, uh.

I, I, I think that.

That, that 2027, that, that may be the next magic bullet, collective bargaining, you know, if, if everybody's punched themselves out here on this front and it continues to go nowhere.

Um, Kevin, I agree with you that there, what is an appetite within certain segments of Congress to actually work on this.

And, and, I mean, For, for whatever the, the overall effectiveness, the Cruz and Cantwell people worked really hard on this all summer.

And it's fascinating, you know, those of us who, I mean, talk about armchair quarterbacks.

I don't think any of us have a very good idea how things work in Congress.

I at least have a little better idea after this summer, after Hearing from a lot of people, staffers from, from various uh congresspeople, and the amount of, first of all, energy that goes into it, but spinning and consensus building and perception work that's done, whew, there's a lot.

And so, yeah, you end up, you get, you get a whole lot of politics in this, and a whole lot of politics leads to inaction on this particular front.

Uh, one area where we do have federal intervention , not a good one.

This is a really disturbing story that, um, I wrote today, uh, on SI.

com.

Uh, but the FBI and the NCAA have, uh, collaborated to try to combat a, uh, disturbing trend of Sexual exploitation and sextortion of college athletes.

Uh, sensitive topic.

I know we have some folks that listen to the pod that sometimes listen when they're taking their kids to school.

It's maybe part you need to fast forward through, but, uh, it's, it's disturbing.

It's, you know, this is not something that's purely limited to sports or college sports at all, but the proliferation of.

Um, hacking into people's, uh, Uh, cloud storage, phones, social media accounts, and getting hold of compromising photos, and then selling them on the black market or using them to blackmail athletes.

And as was pointed out just on a conference call earlier today with FBI and NCAA representatives on this, that college athletes have never had a higher profile than they do now.

A lot of that is good for them in terms of making them marketable and profitable, but it also can lead them to being targeted.

And if you put a lot of pictures of yourself out there, in your uniform, associating yourself with the school, guess what?

There's a market of people that want those photos and want a lot more than that.

And so, this was kind of the dark underbelly of what comes along with name image likeness opportunities.

Um.

They, they were short on specifics on this call in terms of numbers, but, you know, there was thousands and thousands of athletes who could be compromised by this.

Uh, and the NCAA's role is basically to be the liaison between federal investigators and victimized athletes.

And to offer support to them, and to maybe be a more welcoming conduit to talk to if you're an NCAA enforcement rep and you know people on campus at School X and you could say, hey, Um, you know, we've got some information from the FBI that some of your athletes may have been targeted in this.

You know, we wanna make sure they're OK.

We wanna try to get them help, but we would like to see what they know about being targeted.

So, uh, it's a complex, uh, ugly issue.

I'm not sure I really have a question for you guys on this, but, uh, your thoughts on, on this is a dynamic for, for athletes.

One more thing for them to have to deal with, Brian.

Yeah, and, and certainly a concerning thing trend in, in larger society.

I mean, we always hear, you know, just how, how toxic social media is in general, like that's, that's even the above the board kind of stuff, you know, just fans going after, I mean, Uh, you know, ask any athlete to, to show you, show you their DMs.

Like it's, it's not a pretty thing.

And, um, you add this stuff into it, like it's, it's definitely concerning, certainly concerning even, even just as, as a parent, um, you know, going, going into, uh, this new age, and I, I, you know, I, I, I will give, I, I think you gotta give the kudos to, to the NCAA just like they, they have identified a number of areas where, like, you know, strip away all the concerns and the issues of college athletics and, and they are, they are numerous.

Like they have identified a lot of things that Can, you know, potential pathways, potential partnerships, potential things we've seen them with gambling, we've seen them with this, um, in terms of the FBI like they, they have identified a number of areas where how can we make the athlete's life better and, and, and they're trying to do as, as much as possible, and I, I do give them, uh, kudos there in Indianapolis and the folks at the FBI that are working with a lot of these schools, not just in terms of the educational component, but certainly the investigational component.

And, and, you know, let's face it, like you, you mentioned, uh, Pat, that Not only is their profile higher than ever, like, you know, now, now some of these scammers going after these athletes, they, they know that those athletes have money, right?

So like it's not just, it's not just like, I, I, I can exploit you for, for some, some really heinous stuff.

Like I know that you could actually, if , if we're blackmailing you, you actually have some money to pay.

It's not some kid, uh, with a couple $100 in his checking account anymore.

So like there's, there's that aspect of things too.

So, um, you know, kudos to the NCAAA for at least, uh, kind of allowing this, this groundwork to, to form.

Yeah, there was a story last year from Dan Wetzel at ESPN about uh a high school student in Michigan that was a victim of something like this and it led to him committing suicide, just, I mean, horrific, uh, you know, encourage anyone to read it if you're kind of curious about what we're talking about and what this can lead to.

And so, yeah, I think, I think Brian's 100% right that the, you know, hopefully that, you know, things like this that the NCAA league office can do.

Just make life a little bit easier, um, for, for athletes that are feeling a lot of pressure, um, that are, again, they, they, they have the world at their fingertips in a lot of respects and that's not always the best thing for 1819, 20 year olds and so, um, anything that the NCAA that the FBI can do to kind of take the pressure off a little bit slash give resources if you walk yourself into trouble, um, or get targeted in a way that you could never have expected.

Um, yeah, that would be, uh, that's, that's a great thing in my eyes.

So, yeah, thank, thank, good, good, good on the NCAA and the FBI for working on this.

Hopefully it's, uh, it can, you know, protect someone from either something really embarrassing or something a lot worse than embarrassing happening.

Yeah, yeah, I think, I recommend that Dan Wetzel piece, uh, tragic, awful, but, uh, instructive in terms of how this, this sort of thing works.

And, uh, good thoughts from both of you all there.

And I will say, like, Charlie Baker and a lot of people, I think at the NCAA have uh rallied strongly to the cause of protecting athletes from online harassment and or crime.

And this is, I think, part and parcel of that.

It's consistent with that.

And the NCAA does a lot of things wrong.

And we've pointed out many of them on this podcast, we'll probably continue to do so.

In this case, I think it's a great uh step by them, and it's a smart move by the FBI to, uh, to enlist the NCAA's help.

And I, I think it also speaks to, you know, the power of the NCAA too, like, you know, we always talk, we've, we've talked the last couple of weeks, you know, even, uh, before I was off, you know, like in terms of this breakaway and in these conferences forming their own rules, like there is, there's a reason the NCAA exists and, and kind of the power of the collective, you know, like I, I don't think the FBI necessarily wants to deal with, you know, 100 different conferences on, on, on matters like this to where they can provide the conduit to that.

And, uh, you know, I think there's another reason why, uh, for all the talk about breakaways and all that stuff like that, we do talk about it in, in the moment here, like, you know, the NCAA does serve a purpose and, and this is part of it.

And, uh, you know, kudos to the folks in Indianapolis for, uh, identifying this as, as an area, uh, I think this is Charlie Baker has been out front in terms of, hey, we, we got to protect our athletes in this day and age and, and they're doing this with, um, ideas and concepts like this.

Yeah, no doubt.

Um, and so that, the, the, a national body that looks out for the interests of student-athletes is important.

And you, to your point, yes, you wanna go to the mid, the Mountain West Conference, and then you gotta go to the Sun Belt, and then you wanna go to the, you're like, no, it's just easier to have one umbrella group that can address something significant like this.

Uh, one other.

Mostly off the field area, let's get to , and then we'll get to some actual football.

Um, but the back to school rush, the, the athletes who, who are coming back to campus after, uh, the courts have, for now, cleared the way for a 5th year for some people from the class of 2022.

Uh, it's been interesting, it's still probably more of a basketball thing than a football thing, although I am, I will be very interested to see.

As NFL camps progress and players start getting cut, or looking like I'm gonna be, you know, on the practice squad, do you then try to double back and get yourself back on your college team?

Uh, we'll see how that goes.

But right now, like Indiana is the big winner.

Again, it's like everything just keeps coming up Indiana, in football, it's unbelievable.

They've got like 4 guys who, uh, For now, we're back on the roster, including two defensive ends who were studs.

I mean, Stephen Daley, 19 tackles for loss last year and only played 13 games, didn't play in the playoffs.

Uh, that, I mean, it's amazing that they're getting help at tight end, which they need.

Uh, so they're like the big winner of this, but, uh, Kevin, I'll ask you this because you, you've been mostly, you know , on track, on top of this with, um, The basketball front.

Danny Hurley had some interesting comments, basically saying anybody who brings back a player is a dirtbag.

He didn't say exactly that, but uh, he, he threw down the gauntlet.

Where do things stand on the basketball side and is Dan Hurley right?

Are you a dirtbag if you bring back a player?

Uh, I don't, I don't, I, I think it's, I, I understand his point that like, look, if you want to have, if you want to have rules, and you want to be, if, if, if, if you want to be critical of the NCAAA not having rules, you don't get to then live by injunction to like add another power forward, right?

That's the reality.

Same thing with, with football, um, you know, if you, if you love to complain, uh, then go complain, right?

But at the same time, It's, it, it's too far gone.

Like everybody's doing it.

Like I, I'm a little surprised actually that the market has been as strong in basketball as it has been, but I, I think when all's said and done, and I think we'll have a little bit more here in the next couple of days of, of basketball commitments, I think football is, is coming as well.

Like I would say half of power conference basketball will have added a guy, and almost all of them will be a guy that like significantly impacts their team in some way, right?

Not everyone's gonna get a superstar.

I think the biggest name that is out there is, is Mark Mitchell from Mizzou who had a phenomenal year.

I think he's trending towards being a Kentucky Wildcat this year.

Uh, so that would be big, right?

Uh, we, we, we wait on the official word there.

He has some stuff to figure out with his transfer rules and whatnot, right?

But like, Like it, it, it's just too widespread to say, hey, like I'm good, right?

And maybe Dan Hurley can because he has like 3 NBA players on his team and maybe Tom Izzo can because he's Tom Izzo and he's an institution, he can do whatever he wants, but like, I get the pressure to move if you're a, a team in this spot, and I think you've seen some of the movement be teams that have already dealt with injury, right?

Uh, Saint John's has been investigating a spot, they lost their starting power forward, Donnie Freeman to an Achilles tear, so they said, all right, well, here's a market for it, and I think that's what you'll see in football as well, right?

Like I, I think as camp heats up, guys, teams are gonna lose guys, and they're gonna say, hey man, like, we were already a little thin on the offensive line.

We can go get another body, right?

It won't cost a whole lot.

Let's, let's, let's just beef up our, our depth, uh, and I think you'll see a lot of that, you know, in the next couple of weeks, assuming these things hold, uh, the appeals process ongoing in Colorado, but like, that's not, that's not all of it.

Like, everyone who files an injunction, uh, everyone is strong, but it seems like everyone who files a state level injunction on this issue is going to win .

Like it seems very hard to believe that if you really wanna play college football or college basketball this year.

That you won't have a path to do it, right?

And so, yeah, I think, I think everybody's gonna do it.

I think these guys are gonna play, um.

And yeah, if, if, if you're, if you're in the privileged position to say we don't care, we wanna, we don't wanna take these guys, that's fine, but I also don't think we hold it against people too, too much if they wanna go out and get somebody.

If, again, if, if the, if the guy right next to them is doing it, why not us?

Well, it's it's a busy time for a lot of agents, right?

Cause, you know, to, to me, it's, it's not just like, uh, you know, guys are getting cut in camp, but like you, you'll, you'll see like especially as as we hit the roster limits in in the NFL and we kind of get to get down to actual cuts.

You know, a lot of those, those player personnel departments, they're looking at undrafted free agents, they're looking at guys that are getting cut, hey, can we add this guy to a practice squad?

Can we do this?

They're looking at around the margin of their roster cause they, they know that it's not just, you know, the, the 54 that they got, they gotta worry about and, and they're trying to fill that.

Now they're gonna have to compete potentially against college offers, like that's, that's a little bit of, uh, you know, thing.

Something that they haven't done.

So it's gonna impact the NFL and I, I'm gonna be curious if maybe if, if we, if we're talking about like, you know, college sports, potentially getting something done, uh, and, and, and focusing on, on, on a congressional solution, maybe if they get the NFL behind them, you know, in terms of like, hey, all, all 32 teams are not, uh, not big fans of this.

Like, maybe, maybe if they, they get the NFL.

Push there on the hill.

Maybe they can get something done, but it is going to be something that, um, it's gonna dominate, I think, uh, August and September, and I think it's, it's gonna be something, even the, the quarter schools, I think, are, are in a particularly advantageous solution, um, in terms of football, in terms of potentially adding guys, especially if there are, uh, some of those lawsuit clarifications that we're gonna get here probably in the next couple of weeks.

Yeah, and that's the thing too, that's another area where like if you're Oregon, UCLA, Stanford, Northwestern, some of these schools that start later and you get an injury or two in week one, you're like, hey, you got anybody out there we can pick up?

Fill the need?

Maybe so.

Um, Kevin, quick question for you on this.

What's the discount rate?

Now, I mean, like, if, if, if you're getting people now, you're able to get them.

Kind of at a scratch and dent sale, how, how much discount are they getting?

The ballpark that I've used is for guys outside of the true, true elite tier, like guy who has tons of leverage.

It's, can you get a guy for a third of what they would have cost in the normal portal?

So a guy who would have made 1.5 I've heard now makes like 5000, which, hey, that's a way better payday than you would have gotten anywhere else if you're sitting at home right now.

So you would have gone and much easier to get those deals to the CSC at at those lower numbers too, correct, correct.

Although I mean, look, I, I, I alluded to the potential for a Mark Mitchell move like.

That is not one that is going to be cut rate, and I am fascinated to know how in 6 months they're going to do many millions through the CSC, uh, or if they just say, I don't know, I don't care, we're just gonna pay you what we're gonna, we're gonna see what we can get through the CSC, and afterwards we're gonna pay you.

Someone's gonna do that.

I don't know, it might not be Kentucky, it might be LSU.

It might be someone else, you know, the 4-man LSU roster that everybody loves to joke about, yeah, right.

Yes, yes.

Now, the LSU thing continues to be fascinating, but the ask forgiveness, not permission method of roster building, I think will.

Uh, only intensify, uh, with this situation.

Mark Mitchell, if Mark Mitchell ends up at Kentucky, like, do you remember, was it like May when people were losing their minds, Mark Pope is wing, everyone, he's got no players, this is a disaster.

They could end up with a lot of guys.

It's, uh, they would have like a very good, like a, a theoretical front court of Milan Momcilovic, the best shooter in the country, Mark Mitchell, who's great at everything but shooting, and then Moreno, who's like an incredible center or, you know, incredible upside talent, like that'd be a heck of a front court.

Also a lot of M's, that's both, both literally and figuratively, you know, so.

Look, it would be a great roster.

Like, a lot of people would be out there with, like, takes about, you know, Kentucky being forever screwed, and then you look up and you're like, that's like the 6th best roster in college basketball right now.

Like that's, that is, it's a wild turn, and part of it's just having money, but, you know.

Yeah, having money, having desperation, and the, the, the tried and true truism of all this, wait until they actually take the court and see who's on the team or the field.

And, and in this day and age, you might have to wait a little bit after that and still find out who's on the team.

So.

Uh, a lot of intrigue still to come there.

Speaking of intrigue, uh, I did my first most intriguing list of the season, the most intriguing coaches, top 25 of those.

This is not necessarily a list of who's best, it is a list of who's most interesting.

To me, you guys are gonna have different opinions.

Uh, I'm not gonna give away the whole list, but spoiler alert, Kurt Cignnetti's number 1, because of course, Kurt Cignettti is number 1.

Now, number 2 was pretty compelling and I had to give it some thought, but until somebody beats Kurt Signnetti in a game, he's by far the most interesting coach in college football.

You guys, uh, give me your thoughts.

Who, who would you, who are you most intrigued by, uh, heading into this season, Brian?

Well, I would add, uh, I would have had Lane and, and Kyle Whittingham, your #3.

Uh, I think I would have had them ahead of Kurt, uh, just because we know what we're gonna get.

We, we know what we're gonna get out of Kurt.

So like I, I, I, you know, and, and truthfully, like it is a more interesting season for Indiana just because not only do they have that target on their back, they're not gonna surprise anybody .

Like this is a, you know, the, the, the hunter becoming the hunted, uh, type of situation.

Like we, we, we know that's gonna happen there in Bloomington, and I think I'm, I'm excited to kind of see what, what, what that kind of provokes out of, out of Kurt.

But like Lane Kiffin, everything that happened in the offseason and even the end of last season, like I, I think he's, he's a clear number one in my mind.

To me, the thing that, that struck me, uh, reading your list is the guy that's, that's not on there, that is in, uh, uh, how, how, how did you determine, uh, other coaches considered.

The number one guy on the other coaches considered, I would have put like right behind Kyle Whittingham in Davos winning.

Uh, I, I think it's a fascinating situation.

There at Clemson.

Like you have a national title win , a multiple national title-winning head coach, and we only have a couple of those, you know, you can count them on one hand in, in, in the sport right now, and he might be facing the most interesting situation in terms of where the expectations are that he has set at that program, how they have not met them, how, how he has been very much, I'm gonna do it my way, and it is a my way or the highway type of situation there at Clemson.

And if the results are not there, and I think you've already seen the Issues bubble up, uh, these last couple of years where they have not, uh, come anywhere close to kind of the Clemson teams that we know.

Like, I, I think it's a fascinating year.

He's rebooted his staff a little bit, um, you know, kind of getting the band back together with, with Chad Morris coming in there an offensive coordinator.

Um, they, they seem to express a lot of faith in, in their quarterback position, even though it's not a guy that, um, you know, we, we've seen much of .

Like it, it's just a fascinating, fascinating year.

I think Ver Dabo Swinney, you add on top of that an, an ACC.

Where, you know what, they, they could finish 2nd, they could finish 15th.

Like, I mean, it's really kind of all over the place.

I think the ACC is a little bit stronger than, uh, than it was a year ago.

So, uh, you add that in, Miami making the national title game, Virginia Tech spending money, uh, like it's just an interesting year, I think for Dabo and for Clemson as a program.

See that the difference between you and I there is I've already given up on Dabo, OK.

Last year to me was the interesting year and they went 7 and 6 , so.

I've, I've made my mind up and maybe he'll turn it around and prove me wrong, he has before, uh, but we'll see.

Kevin, have you given up on Luke Fickle yet?

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Like, I don't know, I, I found him to be maybe the most interesting figure, non-Sci at Big 10 Media Day, just in the sense of like, how often do you really get a coach who understands that they're on the hot seat and is willing to talk about it.

Again, man, I haven't been good enough.

Like, we have not been good enough as a program.

We haven't gotten where we wanted to go, and yes, like he is going to mix in like every coach, you know, we had to build it from the ground up.

We wanted to do things a different way, but like he's also open with his failings, and I think they're better.

He's open with how much money they spent to try to be better, which means there are no excuses.

if they aren't a lot better.

They have this massive week one game where, look, I don't think anyone's expecting them to beat, beat Notre Dame, but it would be a statement of its own if Wisconsin is in that football game, if they are battling, like, if, if, if, if that is a 4 quarter football game, that is a good sign for a Wisconsin team with a much more manageable schedule.

And look, I, I've, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm suckered in, like this guy's been left for dead.

3 years ago, we thought he was, you know, one of the best coaches in college football or one of the emerging best coaches in college football.

Like, I don't think these guys forget how to do this , and I understand it's hard to climb out of it once you're in it, but I'm intrigued enough by the roster, intrigued enough by the quarterback, and, you know, intrigued by a coach being willing to say like I've, I haven't been good enough and I better fix it.

If not, I'm gonna be probably on, on podcasts like you guys, uh, this time next year.

We'll have Fickle on, absolutely.

I like Luke.

He's, uh, I am shocked at, at the way things have gone for him there.

I really am.

I thought that was total home run hire and it's been anything but the schedule kind of gives him a chance.

I mean, they do open with Notre Dame.

That's, we're gonna just , you know, write down L there, but They don't play Indiana, they don't play Ohio State, they don't play Oregon.

So you take the top 3 threats in the, right now, at least in the Big 10 off the schedule, and if they're improved enough, you can, you know, you find enough wins, maybe at least get a winning record and you get a 5th season.

But, uh, I think from where Wisconsin was to where it is, has been a pretty precipitous fall and an indication they weren't really ready for the modern era.

Um, another coach, I think I had number 8 on the list, but the intrigue keeps getting worse, really, for Bill Belichick at, uh, North Carolina.

He was number 1 on my list last year, and then, I mean, it was just a brutal season.

It was 4 and 8.

his girlfriend made more headlines than he did, came, you know, a very kind of prominent sideshow, and now, In this offseason heading into year 2, the general manager is on paid administrative leave.

Three words you never want to associated with yourself.

Better than unpaid administrative leave, but still, you don't want to be on paid administrative leave.

Michael Lombardi, we talked about him, I think it was last week, maybe 2 weeks ago, anyway, what a train wreck he's been.

But now, Bill's son, Steve Belichick, defensive coordinator, uh, is on medical leave .

I hope everything is OK with him, but the, these are the people.

That were closest to Bill Belichick and the reason the people he leaned on to build around coming in here.

His son is DC, his buddy, riding buddy from the Patriots' days, Michael Lombardi, his girlfriend, they've all been the problems so far.

What the hell is going on there, Brian Fisher, is there any way to dig out of Bill Belichick's self-inflicted wounds here?

I, I think it's gonna be tough, you know, like I, I don't see the roster being in, in that much of a better place to where they can, um, you know, and, and, and to me it's not just the roster, but like the schedule this year is so much more difficult than it was a year ago.

Like that was part of the reason there was a lot of optimism.

All right, he can hit the ground running, right?

Uh, you know, they, they, they don't play any of the top threats, you know, they get a lot of the, uh, teams that you would expect to be good on that ACC schedule at home.

Uh, all right, you know, OK, Bill, Bill Belichick can coach them up and , and maybe win 89, 10 games, right?

You know, and, and make a big splash and then that, you know, is gonna be kind of rolling downhill in terms of leading to more success and Uh, the, the boulders rolling downhill.

It's just gonna land flat on Bill Belichick at this point, you know, and I think that's, that's gonna be the problem.

Like I, I do anticipate, um, you know , his son Steve to, to get back, like I'm, I'm not necessarily worried about, uh, you know, any, any issues with that, uh, just cause you have such a great defensive mind, somebody who is so hands-on, uh, on, on that defense, but like it, it definitely is concerning, and I think, um, you know, with, with some new faces there in Chapel Hill above Bill Belichick, like, you know, that, that does kind of add to the intrigue and, you know, what, what is that ?

Time where we're, we're gonna just, we're we're we're gonna pull the handbrake off and, and, and we're, we're gonna go and, and just, um, you know, clean house.

Like when, when, what is that point, you know, in, in the season, uh, and can we potentially get there this year instead of making this an offseason thing, uh, for, for North Carolina.

I think that's, that's gonna be key, uh, surrounding him because what, let's face it, every time they lose a game, we're gonna be talking about Bill Belichick's job status.

Like that's not a good position to be in as a program and, um, And probably not where anybody expected, not only they're in Chapel Hill, but I think across the football universe at this point, uh, to think that we would, uh, be not only counting this as, as a failure on his resume, but that we would be at this point in his tenure, like you, you know, start of year two, we're, we're gonna talk game after game after game, uh, you know, about his job status, and, uh, I think that's that's gonna be the thing that is gonna hover over the Tar Heels, um, really until that basketball season starts.

They're, they're in the triangle.

If, if there was a team that needed like, uh, you know, Absolute joke of an opener against an FCS team, it was North Carolina.

Instead, not only do you play TCU, you play them in Ireland and you play them with a spotlight of the entire football world watching.

There is literally no other football to watch on uh the, the 29th at 11:00 a.m. Central time than Carolina TCU and I just, I mean, knowing how disastrous losing in Ireland has been to teams in the past.

I, I , I just don't know how this doesn't go really poorly, right?

Like, again, there's gonna be a lot of quit outside this organization on Bill Belichick if they lose and lose ugly early, and It's hard not to imagine that.

Do we get the same thing, you know, like how, how does this not happen to North Carolina this year?

With the way, like, internally, how do you keep the belief when, if, if and when you get blown out in Ireland, if and when you're staring down this, this brutal schedule, if and when you're hearing the questions, and by the way, like, it's great that Carolina wanted to go young and, you know, recruit high school players, like, all those guys realize they may not be here next year, right?

Like, they, you don't even have the, like, I, I guess maybe everybody has to like play for your next contract mentality now in college football.

I guess that's what you have to hope is, is gonna happen with this group.

Because, like, believing in the shield of North Carolina doesn't seem overly optimistic.

No, that's the thing, I mean, the, the, the, the risk involved, and I've, we've seen this in places where if there were already Doubts, if there was already pressure, if there were cracks in the foundation, and you start bad, there's no getting it back in modern college football.

I mean, when it goes bad, it goes bad and people start bailing.

And if you've got, if you're counting on a bunch of freshmen, a lot of young guys that have to step in or transfers that could have one step out real fast, uh, 1 ft out the door.

Uh, and yes, I think starting 1 and 5.

It is likely, frankly.

TCU in Ireland , East Tennessee State, that's your chance to win at Clemson, Notre Dame, at Pitt, at Duke.

Whew! Uh, and especially Duke's a rivalry game.

If you go through that game and you're 1 and 5, even if there are a couple of wins on the back half of the schedule, by then, I wonder how many people within and without of the program will have checked out.

So, Nothing is going well for North Carolina.

Maybe they'll shock us.

Maybe Bobby Pittrino will dial it up and shock the world in Ireland, and we will have a totally different discussion, uh, on August 30th, but we'll see.

Uh, so, you guys, you, you, uh, astutely mentioned Kevin Sweeney, that that is, that is the first game of the season.

It's a standalone game.

Uh, August 29th is, is very much empty calories, but we've got a lot of great weeks coming in college football.

A lot of weeks where you want that hall pass to sit on your couch and watch 12 hours of football.

Guys, give me one week.

Kevin, you can go first.

One week, what is the, what is your favorite week, the week you're most looking forward to on the schedule?

So, I know everybody's gonna circle that, that first weekend in November.

Uh, I, I will, I will let, I will let Brian have it because I have a second week that I think is almost as good, if not just as good, just maybe not quite as deep .

I think October 17th, obviously, Alabama, Tennessee, like awesome game, always like an incredible watch.

Notre Dame at BYU.

I'm just excited for the scene in Provo, uh, and the implications for both teams, particularly BYU for their playoff conversation.

Ohio State at Indiana, that's the headliner, that's the monster, um, and, you know, the, the, the stories galore that go with that.

And then you have potential playoff playing game, Penn State at Michigan, like that game has some monster implications, and then Florida, Texas, like, let, let, let's see what, let's see what Florida's got under John Summerall.

That's a monster, so.

I, I love that slate because I just think, I think we will look back and say, Alabama, Tennessee could be a play-in game, Notre Dame at BYU could be a play-in game for, for, for BYU in particular, Penn State at Michigan could be a play-in game, and Ohio State and Indiana could be for the number one seed.

You know, like, you collect that, that's a, that's a pretty darn good slate.

So I'll, I'll take October 17th in my draft.

Good savvy choice way to not take the, uh, the layup there.

Yeah, that, that was, that was week 7 that Kevin picked.

I'm gonna pick week 10 a few weeks after that, and, and obviously that's, that's the one he was just alluding to.

Oregon at Ohio State, potential national title game preview, if not the Big 10 title game preview.

You have Miami at Notre Dame, you have the holy war between BYU and Utah featuring a new coach for the first time in a long time, Georgia at Ole Miss.

We saw that, uh, that game recently, a couple times, obviously, uh, last season as well.

So like there's, there's gonna be some animosity there.

And, and the, the funny thing is like, The fact that I have to wait to get to Alabama at LSU, which felt like always, you know, the game on the SEC slate that you circled, that was always kind of that 3:30 CBS game that, uh, you know, you'd pencil it in if, if they didn't move it to prime time .

Oklahoma at Florida, the Bob Stoops Bowl, like that, that's a great one.

some sneaky good ones, you know, uh, Penn State goes to Washington, uh, you have TCO at Arizona on that Friday night as well, uh, Virginia Tech at SMU on, on Friday night as well, some intriguing games.

There, that's, that's definitely the, the top of the, the barrel for , for me.

I would, would, uh, leave week six out there as well, the week right before, uh, Kevin just mentioned Red River, Georgia at Alabama, USC at Penn State, uh, A&M at Missouri, uh, sneaky decent potential, uh, there, there for Maryland at Ohio State and, uh, Indiana and Nebraska.

So, uh, more of an interesting, uh, week there.

So like you can definitely tell kind of in, in the heart of, of conference play that we're, we're gonna get this really good weeks of college football.

All right, good calls, guys.

I am going, I would have taken.

Certainly the, uh, the November 7th slate for sure, good stealth pick on the, uh, on the other one.

I, I could go either of two ways.

The first week, cause it's the first week, and they play from Thursday through Monday, but I'm gonna say the second week, week two, which I think is gonna go a long way toward defining conference supremacy.

A lot of really good power conference versus power conference matchups, starting, of course, With Ohio State at Texas and Oklahoma at Michigan.

Big 10 SEC, both of them, each with a Blue Blood visiting a Blue Blood.

The Big 10 goes on the road into Austin, the SEC goes on the road into Ann Arbor.

There's a downstream SEC Big 10 game that day, uh, Mississippi State at Minnesota.

You never know, that could factor into how things are viewed.

Then there's a lot of other, uh, power conference versus power conference games.

Tennessee is at Georgia Tech, Missouri at Kansas.

And by the way, real quick segue here.

Everybody knows about the Missouri-Kansas border war rivalry going back to the Civil War for, for distinct reasons, but what happened this last week underscores it ain't just that.

In Congress, Senator Josh Hawley got some sort of resolution passed naming Missouri the 1960 national champion.

They lost a game that year to Kansas, but Kansas played an ineligible player.

So now we're counting that a Missouri victory, and Missouri, 66 years later, can claim its only football national championship, according to Josh Hawley.

Congress at work, ladies and gentlemen.

Uh, anyway, back to the schedule there on September 12th, uh.

Arizona State visits Texas A&M and then goes straight from there to England to play the next week.

That's a nice double on the road.

Uh, Iowa, Iowa State, the Cyhawk game, uh, Illinois, Duke, Purdue, Wake Forest, Oregon, Oklahoma State, Maryland is at UConn, Rutgers at Boston College.

There's a lot of good stuff happening September 12th as well.

So just sneaking in Rutgers at Boston College, right?

Just sneaking that in.

What's that?

You're just sneaking that game in.

Rutgers at Boston College.

You know, uh, it's, it's a power conference game.

It's that.

I mean, in name at least.

I'm not saying necessarily indeed, but in name.

So close enough.

Uh, all right, guys, uh, that, that's enough.

We got, I don't, I don't have a stupid story to end this week.

It's been a busy weekend, and, uh, you guys have probably heard enough from us for today.

So thanks for listening, uh, subscribe, comment, tell us we're terrible, that's fine.

And uh we will be back next week with another one, another podcast, another version of others receiving votes.

Thanks for listening.