Andy & Ari On3 - Arch Manning and EA Sports played us for fools | Mike Gundy does beer math on live TV

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

On3’s Pete Nakos joins the show to explain how Arch Manning and EA Sports drummed up even more free publicity with a brilliant strategy that involved some initial misdirection.(0:00-1:04) Intro(1:05-22:34) Mike Gundy at Big 12 Media Days(22:35-30:44) Pete Nakos Joins(30:45-43:54) Brett Yormark opening remarks at Big 12 Media Days(43:55-44:39) Wrapping up with Pete(44:40-50:37) Kansas State Outlook(50:38-51:54) Avery Johnson's Flow in EA Sports(51:55-56:07) Cam Rising on BYU vs Utah(56:08-57:18) Conclusion, Dear Andy tomorrow! [e-mail] first, we’ve got to talk about what Mike Gundy said. The Oklahoma State coach appeared at Big 12 Media Days on Tuesday and explained why he’s not suspending star tailback Ollie Gordon following Gordon’s recent arrest on a charge of driving under the influence. Gundy did some beer math live on ESPN and the backlash came understandably quickly.Gundy has never worried too much about what anyone else thinks, and Andy wonders if Gundy has reached a point where he’s essentially in “screw it” mode. Andy also explains why the current state of things has put Gundy in a place where he can feel that way.Next, Pete joins the show to talk about Arch Manning’s EA Sports College Football 25 okey-doke. Plus, Andy and Pete break down some of the more interesting tidbits from Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark’s press conference at media days.Later, Andy examines more of what we learned at Big 12 Media Days, including the fact that Kansas State QB Avery Johnson doesn’t think the video game got his magnificent hair correct. Plus, Utah QB Cam Rising reminds everyone why the return of Utah-BYU as a conference game is going to be spectacular.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/H2LDvTj5Z0EHost: Andy StaplesGuest: Pete NakosProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Talking season has begun in earnest. Also, the video game's coming back and we found out on Tuesday that we have been played for suckers. Arch Manning and EA Sports played us for suckers. Arch Manning is going to be in the game. There was a commercial and everything. I got played. I got played, Tommy.

I got played. Yeah, I'm embarrassed. It's true. But we'll talk about that later. Pete Naco is going to join us. We are going to talk about how Arch Manning and EA Sports played us because I'm not even mad. Like, it was perfect. If you're going to do this, there's only one way to thread that needle and they threaded it.

So we'll talk about that a little bit. But first, we have to talk about Mike Gundy. I think this is what everybody was talking about all day on Tuesday. Mike Gundy and the Oklahoma State crew get to Las Vegas to Big 12 Media Days and very quickly get asked about what's going to happen with Ollie Gordon. Ollie Gordon is their star running back. He was arrested on a dui charge earlier this month and mike gundy says not suspending him brought him here and he's going to answer questions and then he's going to play. And there was obviously an uproar over that, and then Mike Enney kept getting asked about it. And, well, here's what he said in a press conference.

This is the formal, your 20-minute period where you're up on the big stage, and he got asked about the Ollie Gordon situation. Ollie's doing fine. I've visited with him multiple times over the last week. Be quite honest with you, yesterday we had another hour of conversation and it was really the first time that he smiled. I think that it affected him like it would most people. We brought him here today so you guys could ask him that question.

That was one of the reasons that I wanted to bring him here. It's hard for me to speak for Ollie. I can only give you some indication on what I've seen over the last week. I sit back and thought about what I thought was best for Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma State football, and Ollie as we move forward. And we made decisions. And the other thing I shared with Ollie yesterday was after he decided that he wanted to come to today's event, that I told him when this is finished today at 4 o'clock, it's over for me.

I've already made the decisions that I think is what's best for you and this team, and you need to make the decisions and the comments of what you think is best for yourself and the team. And then after today, it's over with, and that's what our goal is, and I think we'll be able to get that's what our goal is and and i think we'll be able to get that accomplished so that is what mike gundy said essentially instead of suspending ollie gordon he brings into big 12 media days and all you game of thrones viewers this is this is the walk through king's landing with the septa behind you going, shame, shame, shame. And Ollie Gordon, for his part, handled this

really well. He got asked a ton about it. We've got one clip, our friend Jenny Carlson, you can subscribe to her sub stack, Beyond the Box Score. She has been covering sports in Oklahoma for a long, long time. In fact, she's the one who wrote the story that Mike Gundy got mad about back in 2007 when he was a 40-year-old man, as he reminded us in that particular press conference. But Jenny's, obviously, their relationship has been very much mended since then. And Jenny's covered this a long time.

And I thought she asked the right questions of Ollie Gordon, and Ollie Gordon gave pretty good answers. Ollie, I know a lot of talk about what happened a couple Sundays ago. What at this point would you like to say about what happened, just where things stand with you? I just really just apologize for my actions, you know, for the mistakes I made. You know, it wasn't good. Every mistake, you know, for mistakes I made. You know, it wasn't good.

Every mistake, you know, every action has a consequence. And I just want to apologize to my family and my team for my actions. And, you know, I just hope that I can get back on good tracks and good terms with all of them, you know. What goes through your mind as all of that's happening? I mean, obviously you know you've got big things coming up. Like, what's going through your mind as events are transpiring that night? You sure right now?

No, that night. You know, for legal reasons, I don't really want to speak on that topic from that night, you know, but I have learned from my actions and won the smart decision. What do you mean that coach wanted you to be here? Sort of, you know, be in front of us to answer questions about it? Well, yeah, I talked to Coach Gundy, and he was more like it was my decision if I wanted to come or not. And, you know, I felt like it was my, you know,

I felt like I should have came because it wouldn't be fair to my teammates or my coaches. Yeah, I think everything was motivated here and answer questions when I could. All right, here we go. That's the answers from Oli Gordon. But it didn't keep his coach from getting asked about this. And where things sort of went off the rails was when Mike gundy went on espn after his his big room interview and this is where he this is part of a longer answer i i'll say that but we're not we can't take four minutes of espn video they're not gonna

not doing that but this is the one that got everybody's attention. And we'll talk about that. And we'll put it in the context of the longer answer. But this is the one that everybody's like, whoa, hold on. We were with you maybe until this. So I looked it up on my phone. what would be the legal limit? Like in Oklahoma is 0.08 and Ollie was 0.1. So I looked it up and it was based on body weight, not to get into the legal side of it, but I thought really two or three beers or four. I'm not justifying what Ollie did. I'm telling you what decision I made. Well, I thought I probably done that a thousand times in my life and and i'm you know it's just fine so i got lucky people get lucky ollie made a um a decision that he wished he could have done better but when i talked to ollie i told him said you're lucky you got out light because you make a lot of money to play football. Okay, so that's Mike Gunny doing beer math on live television.

Now, Mike Gunny tweeted later, my intended point today at Big 12 Media Days was we were all guilty of making bad decisions. It was not a reference to something specific. Well, yeah, because it makes it sound like you were deciding whether to drive drunk or not a thousand times because that's what you said. But I'm actually going to give Mike Gun Eddie the benefit of the doubt on this one.

And I'll tell you why. Because I understand his point. We have, a lot of us, been in that position, especially a lot of us of a certain age. And we'll get to that part in a second. But there have been times for me, I imagine for a lot of you, when you are doing the beer math in your head, just like Mike Gundy was doing on live television. I've been at this restaurant for two and a half hours. I had two beers. I had three beers. What do I do now? I get it. Now, the circumstances of the Olly Gordon arrest were a little bit different. He brings up the blood alcohol level, but if you read the arrest report, Gordon was found with a half full bottle of lemonade vodka, half full bottle of tequila in his car, refused the breathalyzer at the scene and blew the.10 back at the station 40 minutes later. So let's add that context to it. But I understand

because we've been there. Most of us have been there. Christopher in the chat says, I've absolutely driven when I shouldn't have. And it is, it's a bad decision. And I'm with you, Christopher. And I think a lot of us can say that. Now here's what I will say about living in the year of our Lord, 2024. We don't have to decide that anymore. We don't have to make that decision anymore. And if you're in that situation now, and this is, I've got a kid who's going to get a learner's permit soon trying to explain this stuff. If you're in that situation, we now have a way to never have to worry about that. Alan in the chat, I have to, but I do not drink and drive any longer.

That's too much lose. You're absolutely right, Alan, because we're talking about this a few days after we just talked about Kyrie Jackson passing away from a car crash that may have involved a drunk driver. We don't know yet. They're investigating it still, but the police said they suspect that it involved a drunk driver. And there is so much to lose for yourself, for other people.

We all know the Henry Ruggs story. It's really bad. So we don't have to do that anymore. That is one of the great things about living in the age we live in now. And so I'm 45. I know a lot of you in my age bracket and older, you remember these days. Well, I live in a small town. There's not a ton of taxis in this town. There would be times when you couldn't get a taxi and you're just sitting there going, what do I do? I've just sat in my car for a couple hours in situations like that. Just like, okay, I can't, I'm not doing this. I'm not driving, but I have no other way home. That doesn't exist anymore. We have Uber and Lyft now. We have it. The solution is there for everyone. It is reasonably priced, especially compared to

the cost of what the DUI is going to cost you if you get caught. It is barely anything compared to the cost of what the DUI is going to cost you if you get caught. It is barely anything compared to that. So there shouldn't be these issues anymore. You know, we saw it with Justin Timberlake a few weeks ago. Like, what is Justin Timberlake doing? But I understand where Mike Gundy is coming from when he says that. I think he said it wrong, but I understand where he's coming from. What Mike Gundy also said in multiple interviews that I found very interesting that we have not really talked much about. That was not in the outrage cycle yesterday. You didn't get a lot of

nuanced discussion about what else he said. And I thought it was interesting. He mentioned that Ali Gordon is making a lot of money for playing football, which is true. And Gundy didn't say it in a judgmental way. It's a statement of fact. He is. Just like an NFL player is. Now he's not making as much, but he's making good money. Part of that is you're paying him or the collective at Oklahoma State is paying him to play. So does that factor into the suspension decision? I would venture to guess the opponent in game one factors into the suspension decision. It's South Dakota State. And some of you are going FCS school. You can't beat an FCS school without them. Well, South Dakota State's the two-time defending FCS national champions. Remember the last time a two-time defending FCS national champion went to a power conference school? I do.

It was when Appalachian State went to the big house. 2007. We all know how that went. So, I imagine that's part of the decision. And then Gundy brought up another, that four minute answer that I'm talking about in that four minute answer, he brought up something else that I, I've always struggled with myself and I don't know the right answer. I realized I'm supposed to have these massive flaming takes on everything, but I really don't know that I have the right answer on something like this, or if any coach does either.

And this is what Mike Gundy says. Is suspending him for one game really going to matter? I don't think so. Now you want to spend him for six games. Maybe, maybe that would do it, but I don't think that's fair to everybody else on our team. And I have to take that into consideration. That's a very honest answer for Mike Gundy. A very honest answer that I'm not

sure a lot of other coaches would have given. He's right. Gundy's job is to win games. The other players probably need Ollie Gordon to play to be in the best place to win those games. And this is a pro sport now. It always kind of was, but now it really is. And so the whole morality play that has always sort of consumed college football, even though it was kind of BS, I think now we can strip that away. The whole, we're molding men here. No, you're trying to win football games. That's what you've always been trying to do. If people grow as human beings through that process, that's great.

But that's not what people are trying to do. So I thought that was a very interesting answer from Mike Gundy. I also thought that Mike Gundy, you know, he's always been pretty loose in front of a microphone. We know that. This is Mr. I'm a man, I'm 40. But he is really in screw it a microphone. We know that. This is Mr. I'm a man, I'm 40. But he is really in screw it mode now. He can say whatever he wants, I think, and probably not worry about any sort of adverse consequences from Oklahoma State, from anybody else. He's been through multiple controversies like this. He's been fine. And he's been winning above Oklahoma State's historical winning percentage for his entire time there. So I think he's fine on that.

But I also think Mike Gundy is about to enter an era where he may have an advantage. And it's crazy to think, because I remember about a year ago, wondering how long Mike Gundy was going to last in the era of the transfer portal of NIL, because I wasn't sure if the way he won was going to work in that era. But that era is about to not end, but shift into the era of schools actually paying players. And I think that is about to give Mike Gundy a big advantage, especially in the Big 12. Because in the Big 12, everybody's pretty similar. There's no giant big dog. Texas and Oklahoma are gone.

So there's no school where they're going to have a collective that can kick in so much more money above what the school is kicking in that they would have a prohibitive advantage financially. So Oklahoma State is not a school where the collective is going to be able to give them a ton of money, where if you are relying only on your donors to pay the players, which is what you have now, it's tough. But if you've got money coming from the athletic department, coming through a TV contract that is going to pay the players, and then you supplement that with your NIL, with your, with your collective's money, then I trust Mike Gundy to win a lot that way because Mike Gundy hasn't ever needed to have the most.

If you get him close, he's going to be very competitive. And I talked to another power conference coach earlier this year, and he put it really well. This is another person who's great at evaluating, great at developing talent. And basically this coach was telling me, they went to their administration and said, if you can fund me at the bottom, I'll put you in the middle. If you can fund me in the middle, I'll put you close to the top. And that's kind of where Mike Gundy is. If Oklahoma State can fund Mike Gundy in the middle, Oklahoma State can be really good because he's always been at this disadvantage.

He's always had to deal with Texas and Oklahoma. He doesn't have them anymore. Now he's got a bunch of schools that are kind of similarly situated. Now he's got to deal with some other coaches in this league who are also really good at, he's got to deal with some other coaches in this league who are also really good at what he's good at. Kyle Whittingham at Utah, Lance Leipold at Kansas, Chris Kleinman at Kansas State. They're great at that too. Willie Fritz at Houston. We've seen

that throughout his career. Now, he's got to get it going at Houston. But Gunny got asked a great question at Big 12 in 80 days about, is it possible for anybody to dominate this new Big 12? And he had an interesting answer. That's a great question. I don't know that any of us will be able to read into that at this point. We're learning about the new teams that are coming in in my opinion as we move forward there's going to be a lot of parity I should say more parity in college football than there has been over the last few years if revenue sharing takes effect I would guess that most schools in this league will distribute money somewhat

equally to football. The direction we're going, that's going to determine the type of players that you have in your organization, whether we like it or not. Recruiting is still recruiting, but it won't be as much recruiting as now it will be the ability to distribute money to the right players that you need based on the talent that you think that you've seen at that particular time. I think that we've got a number of teams in this league that have an opportunity to make a move national. Whether anybody can take over and dominate for an extended period of time would be hard to tell at this point.

That's Mike Gunny basically saying you give me 15 million bucks a year from the school and payroll, and I will beat your ass. I don't know if they're going to get 15 million, but it's going to be 20 million that they can share among the athletes. And I would imagine most schools in the big 12 are probably going to fund football at the same amount. Football is going to get more than the others because football makes all the money. And so if it's between 10 and 15 million, you're giving Gundy that.

I got faith in them to win a lot in that situation. I have a lot of faith in Mike Gundy, in Kyle Whittingham, in Lance Leipold, in Chris Kleiman in those situations because that puts them probably in a better position than they've ever been in before relative to the rest of their leagues. That's going to be fascinating to watch. And I don't think we're talking about that nearly enough because I am very curious to see how this all changes because we talk about the money and we talk about how much that matters and it does matter, but you still have to be able to choose

the correct players for what you do. And you've got to be able to develop the players once you get them on campus. And Mike Gundy has proven over 20 years that he can do that. Kyle Whittingham has proven that. Lance Leipold has proven that. Chris Kle he can do that. Kyle Whittingham's proven that. Lance Leipold's proven that. Chris Kleiman's proven that.

That changes the math on these things. It's going to change the math in the other conferences too. It's a lot to think about because it's a big change. We haven't seen it yet. We're going to start seeing it next year. But get ready because that is the next wave. This little mini era between 2021 and now, it ends after this year. A new era starts next year when the schools can pay. And I think that gives a guy like Mike Gundy an advantage. It gives Dabo Sweeney a massive advantage. Like we keep saying, is Dabo going to figure this out? Well, if we take Dabo at his word, once the school can pay, they're going to be able to be competitive in the transfer portal.

Those are the coaches you got to be really scared of in the new era. So we'll see what happens, but that lost in Mike Gundy doing beer mouth on live television was Mike Gundy talking about the future of college football in a way that, that most of us probably hadn't thought about yet. And I do think we need to think about that going forward, but now we got to think about that going forward. But now we've got to switch gears. We've got to talk about getting played,

because boy howdy did we ever get played. Join now I, Pete Nacos, On3 national reporter. Pete, do you feel the amount of shame that I feel for seeing seeing that lord dangling in the water a few months ago and just gulping it up and getting hooked right right in the lip by by ea sports and arch manning i feel more played because i had sources at the time saying oh you should keep an eye on this and then nobody gave me a heads up but that's that's that's how i operate but yes i fully understand the whole play piece of it as well oh and again i'm not even mad but let's let's watch this thing so this commercial debuted on arch manning's twitter it's like the fourth time he's ever

tweeted the first time was i've committed to te've committed to Texas. This is the commercial that dropped basically right as Big 12 Media Days was starting yesterday. Alright, here we go. Let's go gun far, sit me right nasty, Z-Riz, F-Whirlybird, alert scarecrow, alright? Use a little cadence here. Alright, you ready? Are you sure about this? Absolutely!

I mean, this is the best way to focus on football, alright? So get your eyes on the safety, be vocal out there. Yes, coach. I mean, uh, Uncle best way to focus on football, right? So get your eyes on the safety. Be vocal out there. Yes, coach. I mean, Uncle E. It's better. Green 18. Green 18. Omaha to Hunt. Ready, ready.

All right, there he is. There he is. Now. Boom. Touchdown. Now that's why you're in the game. EA Sports, I'm in the game. Whew. You know, we'm in the game. Whew. You know, we could have just run four verts.

I just, when I saw that, my stomach just dropped. I'm like, they played us so well. They played us like fiddles. So you had, months ago, Nebula Sourcing saying Arch Manning is not going to opt into the game which seemed a little weird at the time he's the backup quarterback why wouldn't you do that but you're going oh he's holding out for more money no this probably was planned the entire time yeah yeah i felt i felt really played too when we see Eli Manning come in, right? Because you know right away this has been in the works for a little bit. You don't get Eli in a commercial with Arch overnight.

Yeah, exactly. And so you reported that Arch got between $50,000 and $60,000 for being in this. And he's being paid to promote the game which other players also were paid to promote the game obviously the the three guys on the cover but there were other players when when they announced this deal where you could opt in yep there were other players who tweeted or posted on instagram saying i'm in the game they were paid for that as well they were and uh it's been funny seeing some social media backlash about how much money this is well folks uh travis hunter and quinn ewers get six figures like that shouldn't be really startling

but that's right the facts but uh they were on the cover let's talk about that part of it too because this is i'm telling you advertising classes will do a case study on on this whole rollout yeah as just the most brilliant way of getting free publicity and i realized we are we're doing that too we're doing it for them yeah but i don't care and people seem interested in it and so but with arch manning there's some sensitivity there's some things you have to be careful of within the team dynamic and they threaded the needle perfectly here because okay Quinn Ewers is on the cover Quinn Ewers is starting quarterback at Texas Arch Manning is his back Quinn Ewers is on the cover and he got his moment when they when they reveal the cover so

you had Quinn Ewers you had Donovan Edwards you had Travis Hunter they had the whole you know mini behind the scenes documentary on that everything so you got quinn ewers gets his moment and then pete this is where this is what i love in the commercial you do not see arch manning playing quarterback in a game for texas you see him practicing. Yep. Yep. It's, it's,

it's the other really interesting twist to it all to Andy, which I know you know, but it's like, we all know how many eyeballs are going to be on Quinn and arch this year. Right. And like, Oh, just like arch get into a game and things like that. And I'm sorry,

but this just completely like goes all in on that idea as well and and obviously yes the practice field shows that he's the clear backup but man i and and what i mean on on the flip side too what a huge win for texas right yeah talk about he's doing the hoods on the cup yeah quinn's on the cover and then Arch is doing hook'em in a national ad spot. Well, I will say the photo that we pulled from that ad with Arch in the shoulder pads with the headphones on, he looks like a barbarian on the cover of a romance novel. If that makes sense. But I will

say, dynamite acting skills by arch the the acting skills from eli and peyton i'm assuming cooper arch's dad similar personality to his brothers like it it it carried through now eli has become one of the funniest people in football. Yes. Since retiring. Yes. And this, it doesn't work without Eli. No, no. Eli brings it all together. And I didn't know, like, we haven't really seen that much of Arch,

to be completely honest with you. So, like, that was kind of exciting to see Arch, you know, see a little bit of personality. Yeah. Eli made the whole thing, though. Calling the play, telling him this is how you practice uh eli made the whole thing though calling the play telling him this is how you practice he made the whole thing and eli's production company made the commercial correct they sure did yes that's a thing like when in doubt follow the money yep but yeah we got played it happens we apologize not really we appreciate the content and i'm still excited But yeah, we got played. It happens. We apologize. Not really.

We appreciate the content. And I'm still excited about the game. And who knows? Maybe I'll do some practicing as Arch Manning. I mean, why wouldn't you just put Arch in? Yeah, just mix it up a little. What if I want to use Quinn? What if you use Quinn on the first drive and put Arch in the second?

Put a little Jonathan Smith, Aiden Giles action in there. What if I pull a Steve Spurrier and replace them every play? Like Doug Johnson and Noah Brendyce. One, then one, then one, then one, then one, then one. That's not going to be a very fun gameplay. It's going to be. Okay, I need 20 seconds to guess. There's a few more button presses than Steve Sp spurrier had to do like steve spurrier

back in 1997 against florida state is like oh i just instead of sitting and playing a receiver i can just run it in with the quarterback like he's just looking for efficiencies here yeah yeah i don't know it will be it will be fun though i mean texas yeah it's arches the heir apparent ozzy me trying to convince arch manning to transfer to Louisiana Tech in Dynasty. That's the thing. How many people are going to be recruiting Arch Manning as a transfer in this game? I'll tell you, Pete, when we were down at EA Sports and they were showing us the slides of how the gameplay would work and the different modes would work, the Dynasty Mode slide, they got to the transfer portal, and the top name of the transfer portal was Drew Aller.

And we all, like, you heard this audible gasp from all the non-Madden people in the room, like the people who were there for the college football game. Yeah. Because it's like, whoa! And then one of the guys who's a major Penn State fan, one of their developers, is like, guys, Drew Allard's not transferring. But we figured we'd give you an example of

there's going to be somebody like this because Kyle McCord did it last year. Well then, my first dynasty's going to really attack the portal i'll just say that yeah my my ulm warhawks general booty might not survive to year two as the starter if uh if he's not really really productive i wasn't sure if you saw yesterday avery johnson got to play the game oh we were going to talk about that later in the show okay yeah we're going to talk about that so we got it we got a clip from in the show. Okay. Yeah, we were going to talk about that. We got a clip from our guys at K-State Online,

so we'll definitely be talking about that. But I do want to talk to you about some of the other things that were mentioned at Big 12 Media Days because Brett Yormark, the commissioner, got up. Now, remember, Brett Yormark is the guy who said the Big 12 is open for business. Yep. Who this time last year we were like what are they going to do we know that we knew they were courting the four corner schools trying to get them away from the pac-12 yeah 12 disintegrates a month later they get those schools

yeah now brett yormark talking about all his big ideas going forward so he he threw out a really interesting idea yesterday that is not new to the college sports but it's the first time a commissioner has really thrown it out there like that of maybe selling sports and different tv packages um the the big 12 got a new extension last year in the two billion dollar range which sounds like a lot but isn't when you look at the fact that uh the big 10 gets 7 billion over about nine or ten years but anyways um so but you look at it the big 12 basketball package i think would be one of the more valuable ones out there right yeah obviously one of the

better conferences in the sport they flirted with gonzaga and uconn i don't think they'll add those at this point um but definitely a really intriguing basketball option and then on top of that you have a football option and you know the other idea that i think is out there kind of circulating and floating out there is like um bright your mark is going to go all in on finding new revenue streams he's he's already talked about private equity and capital investment and things like that. Does that attract some new schools that we wouldn't exactly think would fall into the big 12 that maybe are offered sums of cash that, that from private equity that make it worthwhile.

We'll see. Well, I'm going to, I'm going to stop you there because we were good. I was going to head down that path with you at some point today, but let's go there now because there was a lot of whispering in las vegas about it was two particular schools that are trying to get out of their current conference and it's it's it's amazing how many people can't say oh the back channel

discussions between florida state clemson and the big 10 and the sec have ceased i wonder who might have put the word out saying that also i have no idea if that's true i have no idea if those were those were going on but florida state clemson trying to get out of the acc shockingly everybody from the big 12 gets together and we get these sources saying hey you know what would be a great place for Florida State and Clemson to land if they got out of the ACC? The Big 12! Hmm. Hmm, man.

It's, he also, Brett, you were marked the commissioner. He took so many shots at the ACC yesterday, calling the Big 12 the third best conference in the country. And he also, like like used some really big words that i have pulled up right here one sec i think he said like um yeah he said he yormar called himself a disruptor who stirs the pot so yeah yeah well it's true and like i said about him yesterday there's nothing sacred to him. He's not from the world of college sports.

If he does disrupt, it doesn't bother him. And I think a lot of the folks who kind of grew up in the business, they're not going to be as extreme. So like very clearly, and we saw this with the Big 12 and a little peek behind the curtain, the Big 12 had consultants working with them throughout the previous few years that were feeding people lots of stuff that was meant to destabilize the Pac-12. Clearly, they have turned their focus on the ACC now. They sure have. And I mean, you even go beyond the idea of private equity, right? The Big 12 was the first to really kind of like go all in publicly on the idea of renaming their conference right there in talks with Allstate. And then past that, too, I mean, I've had sources indicate to me that the corporate jersey patches are only a ways away.

And then Ross Dellinger reported yesterday that your mark is really leading that charge, which is no surprise. And I mean, those corporate patch deals, from what I've learned, are going to be much more lucrative than what we'll see in these on-field sponsorships. Well, and so I think with that, do what you want. Like, I hope Penn State and Auburn and the other schools that have been reluctant to do anything with their uniforms, I hope they just decide not to sell that space. Notre Dame. Yeah. But if we're being real about it, they've all been selling that space for quite some time because we talk, you report on this, like the logo of the apparel company that makes the uniform has been what has been advertised by the uniform so it's been nike

adidas under armor you name it and they've taken money for that so anybody who thinks that this is something sacred that they would never they've been selling it forever and you know i am um i wouldn't say i'm an advocate but i think it's a good idea especially for those low power four schools and group of five schools who are really not going to be able to opt into the full revenue sharing percentage. And they are going to need to find some new revenue assets. And that is going to be a really easy one for, in some situations.

I just, I hope it's Chico's bail bonds, greatest Jersey sponsor in the history of the world. Bad news bears. If you haven't seen it go watch i love the indie staple show just a big picture of the indie what about an on three jersey sponsorship i the problem with that is we we can't sponsor like if we sponsored one school then everybody else is gonna get mad at us and i think i think the best road is

can't buy the whole yeah can't buy a national title. I think that's why we need to go all in on a bowl game. I agree. And I have actually brought this up to our bosses. They are not sure it is worth, that the juice is worth the squeeze. I disagree mostly because I want to call the Myrtle Beach Bowl and have you as the roving sideline reporter. And I think we can make that happen. Yeah. You'd be we can make that happen.

Yeah. You'd be great in play-by-play. I don't know if I'd be good. I might need to be the analyst. I want to be the guy, like the Appalachian State radio guy, who just starts screaming when something happens. Because I'm not sure I could form my words properly. Well, we'll bring J.D. Piquel in, and he can do the X's and O's. Oh, he's smooth, yeah.

I personally think Josh Newberg is the most level head of the on three video team. And, uh, agree. Dukes would be a great, we can split up the sideline duties. Me and Dukes. Well,

yeah, we put you on one sideline and Dukes on the other sideline. I think that's, that's perfect. And then you get together for wacky segments. If the game gets boring, like you start eating whatever the weirdest concession stand item is. Like if, if the game, if it becomes like a more of more than a three touchdown spread yeah we send

you to the concession stand i ain't gonna chase dukes around after the game with a you know to throw a gatorade bath on it or a mayo bath or whatever what we need a new condiment like can we have the uh the on three sriracha Myrtle beach bowl? No, you're not risking getting on you. No. Yeah. No.

Have you ever had a jalapeno like in your eye like that? Yeah. It's bad. It is bad. All right. So Brett, your mark, I thought the, the splitting the football and basketball TV deals was very interesting as

well. My brain went more conspiratorially than yours did. Yours very smartly went to, this is potentially a more valuable basketball contract than most other leagues. Therefore, why not split it out instead of it being just an addition to the football one? My thought was, boy, this would make it easier if you split off football from the other sports if you just had a separate football tv deal and oh by the way maybe that's what the big 10 and the sec would do in their next deals too yeah and that's when you get to that super league that has kind of been hovering over college football in the last 18 to 24 months. The truth that the game is 55 to seven Pete,

Pete gets eat fried cheese dough. Now we're talking. I like it. I like it. So the other thing, Brett, your Mark mentioned that, that caught my attention is they're exploring new TV windows because they

want to, they say, you know, lots going on on Saturdays want to showcase the game as best possible. If you look at the schedule, the big 12 has already staked a claim on Friday night. Yes. They've put some of their,

their more intriguing games on Friday nights this season. I don't think he's talking about this season. I think he's talking about going forward, but I'm curious to like, initially I was like, does he mean? Cause I think brunch Saturday brunch is a time that the needs to be considered here. Yeah.

Like TCU UCF brunch game. Come on. Yeah. And I also think beyond that too, like, yes, we love game day and we love all the pregame shows, but you kind of want a little football too like if you i think in the age of sports gambling being legal in most states you want to have a game on as often as possible so like because i don't know though yeah as i've aged my interest in the pre-game shows has waned like if you put a football game on then i would watch the game 100 and they did that espn did that at first the acc network where they had an 11 a.m game so it started you know that last

hour of game day if you didn't want to watch that you can you can flip it so but you could start a game at 9 a.m eastern time yeah and i'm telling you there would be a significant audience for it. I also wonder too, does, does break your mark? Try to like, look into like, you know, if there's like a really bad new slate,

like, does he try to like really take advantage and find like a time between Newton and three 30? Um, I don't know. It's possible. I also think he's talking about Tuesday and Wednesday. So watch out.

Watch your back, Mac. Wow. That would really put Target on the back. Yet again, it gives a game for gamblers. That's exactly what it is. I mean, and that's what, you know, John Steinbrecher, the commissioner of the Mac MAC has understood that longer than anybody and Maction is brilliant for them in terms of just getting getting it in front of people who'd never see

it otherwise yeah and if the NFL's not I think ultimately the NFL is going to take those week nights but if they're just going to stay on Thursdays avoid Thursday but yeah the other ones are fair game we're also approaching this time where college football is going to stay on Thursdays. Avoid Thursday, but yeah, the other ones are fair game. We're also approaching this time where college football is going to it's never going to exactly rival the NFL TV ratings, but with the college football playoff this year going against

some games like it's going to continue to run into each other more and more. Yeah, I can't can't wait. But GoBlack45 says, if they do that, just put the announcement statement,

screw you fans and just watch. Well, yeah. The fans who are going get screwed. This is the brunch game, of course. The fans who are going get screwed. The fans watching don't because I get to eat bacon and watch football like that's a win for me come on yeah but i will tell you tailgating at 6 a.m would suck it'd be terrible it'd be terrible

washington c is done it well though for game day i will say that's true that that now let's see i you know i've been to some game days that were sorry i actually went to one at penn state one time which it's on the east coast so yeah the show is actually starting at nine local time not six but i will say a lot of the students who were there had not been to sleep from the night before. Yeah. Yeah. Steven in the chat. This all ends with UCF playing Arizona State in 10 p.m.

The sun coming over that. I believe that mountain is east of the stadium. So the sun coming over that mountain. Yep. Beautiful. The Sun Bowl would be a good option, too. is east of the stadium. So the sun coming over that mountain. Yep. Woo. Beautiful. The sun bowl would be a good option too. Oh yes.

Oh my goodness. Pete, what are we doing here? We should be TV consultants. Uh, yeah, I agree. I agree. But you know,

the future of the big 12, we'll see what happens. Well, Brett, your mark, if you need anybody to just feed you ideas, me and Pete, you get a couple of drinks in us.

We're no bad ideas. People. Exactly. Thank you, Pete. Nate goes, we'll have you back when we need another blue sky session. And,

uh, it'll be soon. Pete Nacos, the great national reporter from on three that brunch game I like it better the more I think about it like it better the more I think about it let's get back into the big 12 though there's some very interesting situations going on the the Big 12. I just talked about Mike Gundy and how good Oklahoma State could be going forward in an era when the schools can pay. Well, I think Kansas State's a good test of that because Kansas with its NIL laws did a good job of making it where Kansas and

Kansas state could keep their players who are good in state, giving them kind of incentives to stay home. And you saw Kansas sign Avery Johnson before last season. They just got to commit from Lincoln cure. Who's their first five-star commit. Cause Avery, I don't believe, I believe Avery is a four-star, but Lincoln Cure is a five-star. He's in the class of 2025. So they are one that they've been good, consistently good, going back to the second era of Bill Snyder and Chris Kleiman took over and is doing similar things.

But could they be even better? I don't know. We'll find out this year, I think, because they will now be led by a quarterback who was a major recruit who they beat out a lot of other really good schools for who, by the way, Avery Johnson is the reason that Will Howard is starting at, wait for it, Ohio State. Ohio State's starting quarterback is at Ohio State because he got beat out by Avery Johnson. So if you're wondering why I'm driving the Avery Johnson bandwagon. And we've talked about this a bunch. This is why, this is why. So Avery Johnson was at media day. Chris Klein was there talking about what they expect. And, and, you know, Klein is talking about how good of a leader Johnson is, but I thought what was more interesting is Klein talking about the players around Avery Johnson,

starting with DJ Giddens, who's a very productive back who they've got back. They got Dylan Edwards as a transfer from Colorado, who's a Kansas native. He and Avery played together as kids. But here's Chris Kleiman talking about their offense. DJ is just a phenomenal football player. That's a great kid, great pass protection, great out of the backfield catching the ball. He's going to have a dynamite year for us. We just have surrounded him now with some more talent that we don't maybe have to rely on him as much.

There's some games that we are. We're going to give it to him, and he'd be ready for it. And there's other games where we've got to spread it around more, and we've got to throw the ball a little bit more so that the running game does open up. And so we've got another tailback in Dylan Edwards that's a really good complement to DJ with kind of some speed as well as electricity and elusiveness in the open field. So that's the thing that probably excites us the most

is offensively we have a lot of guys around Avery. And so you hear that. That's Chris Kleiman saying, we're going to throw the ball more with Avery Johnson. I'm telling you guys, Avery Johnson's speed, if you combine it with a competent passing game and good backs and a decent offensive line, which is what Kansas State should have, it can be devastating. Now, we don't know how competent the passing game will be.

We've seen a few good throws from Avery Johnson when he was splitting time with Will Howard, but we have not seen him consistently throughout a game where the offense has been designed around him. That is what I'm excited to see with Avery Johnson. We have not seen him consistently throughout a game where the offense has been designed around him. That is what I'm excited to see with Avery Johnson. Now, as far as their offensive line goes, they lose Cooper Beebe, which is tough. They lose three starters on their offensive line. They're going to start four seniors this year on their offensive line, though. It's still a line that has been developed there that has been, you know you've got guys who've waited in the wings they're older and that's where like k-state and oklahoma state as potential conference favorites make a lot of sense because of the age of the offensive line oklahoma state they're older and very experienced

so we expect quite a bit out of them, but the Kansas State favoritism, where they fall among the betting favorites, they're the second best odds behind Utah, which is another program that always has an older group in the trenches. Again, it's interesting because the the teams that are the favorites other than arizona kind of built the same way so i'm fascinated to watch k-state this year now avery johnson got asked about the video game because he got to play the video game because i think avery johnson is going to be one of the people who, if you play the video game, you may not be a K-State fan. You may not know who anybody is. But you might gravitate toward this guy because he's super fast.

And I'm telling you, the run game in this game, having played it, if you've got a good runner, a slippery runner, if you've been playing Madden, you're not used to this. But you can break some tackles or slip some tackles and really gain some yards. So I think Avery Johnson is going to be a popular guy to play as. Although my friend, Christopher Nini from the athletic asked him yesterday, did, did they get your speed? Right. He says, no, not quite as fast as he is in real life, which that's, I think that's just fast guy. I can beat you in a parking lot race talking there, but yeah, he's really fast.

Now our guys from K-State Online caught up with Avery Johnson, asked him about the game, more specifically asked him about his most prominent physical feature and whether the game got that right. As far as like players looked, I mean, I can, I feel like they looked to a part. I might have been a little buffer than I am in real life. I don't feel like I'm that buff.

I feel like I'm a little bit more slim of a guy. But it was pretty accurate. But you thought height, weight, hair, skin, all that looked – Except for hair. I didn't have hair. Oh, okay. Which EA will get a tweet about. I was going to say,

I think that they will probably fix that pretty quickly for you. Yeah. People – EA will get a tweet about. I was going to say, I think that they will probably fix that pretty quickly for you. EA will get a tweet about it. Hey, listen, you can fly in an update in this game. So get that man his lettuce. Because, yeah, Avery Johnson's got to have hair in this game. If it's in the game, it's in the game. Avery Johnson's hair is in the game. We had the April Fool's post from Kansas State

where they showed somebody sitting in a barber chair and all this curly hair falling to the floor. And people are like, whoa, I got got by that one. Arch Manning got me, K-State got me on that one. But Avery Johnson, very interesting QB to watch, but the only interesting long haired quarterback in the big 12 cam rising.

We got to talk about him too. Utah's cam rising coming back. Knee injury cost him all of last season. Remember that he suffered a knee injury in the Rose Bowl following the 2022 season. And it was so bad that it basically cost him the whole 2023 season. Also, Brant Keithy, their tight end, had been hurt earlier that year. He also was injured so badly that he missed all of last season. Both those guys are back.

And Utah, remember, with Cam Rising as a starter, won two consecutive Pac-12 titles. That's with Oregon, with USC, with Washington in the league. That's how good Utah can be. So big expectations now cam rising because of the way his injury worked and and because of the covet year he actually could get an eighth year of college football this is number seven coming up he got asked about that and and uh he said no i said seven's plenty eight's not in the plan. Seven's plenty. So Cam Rising planning for this to be his last year of college football.

Now, it will become a special year for Utah and for its rival BYU because that game is now a conference game again for the first time in years. And if you've never really looked into the Utah BYU rivalry, it is nasty. It's a kind of church versus state. Like there's, there's a lot of variables at play here. There's a potential, like BYU tried to wreck the conference that Utah was in at one point when when Utah now Utah and BYU left the WAC to start the Mountain West but BYU then went independent and then tried to put its other sports in the WAC and then torpedo the Mountain West so there is a lot of a lot of animosity here they've played some since they weren't in the same conference,

but not every year, and they haven't played since 2021. BYU actually won that game, ending a long Utah win streak. Trust me, the Utes are ready to play this game again, and Cam Rising really didn't mince words when he got asked about it. I just want to go down there and whip their ass pretty much. That's all I'm focused on. Absolutely. I just want to go down there and whip their ass pretty much.

That's all I'm focused on. That video from Dana Green of WTKX, or KTKX, sorry, in Utah. That is not mincing words. Cam Rising, not mincing words. And that is exactly how most of the Utes and most of the Cougars feel about this game. I can't wait to see it. I'm so thrilled that this is a conference game again.

It's late in the season. It is game nine for BYU. I'm excuse me for, for Utah. I believe it's game nine for BYU as well. And it's, it's a conference game too. So I, this is, this is going to be of the rivalries coming back. Obviously we're very about texas a&m and texas coming back but this one coming back as an annual conference game let's go it is animosity like think about the egg bowl mississippi and mississippi state that level of hatred except you add the church versus state element to it instead of two state schools. The Egg Bowl is more of traditional liberal arts school versus ag school kind of rivalry. This one is the state school versus the church school, and it really gets nasty.

So let's go. All right. Tomorrow's a Thursday. So you know what that means. Your questions drive the show. Dear Andy, you know where to find me. Andy underscore staples on X. Andy underscore staples on Instagram.

Andy staples on three at gmail.com. If you'd like to email me your question or you have one, that's just way too long for social media. Send me that question there. If you've got a video question, you can shoot, shoot it to that email address as well. I can't wait to answer your questions. Now I'm not going to be the only one answering questions because remember a

certain Colorado coach takes the stage at Big 12 Media Days on Wednesday. So, of course, we will break down everything Coach Prime had to say because this is one we've been waiting for for a while. We want to know, how much better is Colorado going to be? We'll see if Coach Prime gives us any insight into that. It is talking season. Coaches, microphones, always an adventure. We'll talk to you tomorrow.